Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity
by Saranimal
Summary: Ah, Harry Potter's in love... WITH A MUGGLE!! That's right, and on top of that, our favorite Gryffindor befriends a new fifth-year, Trinity, that's hiding a very definite DARK secret... R&R, Quidditch, Voldie, and some looove, what more could you want?
1. Old Friends

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter One  
  
"Old Friends"  
  
A/N: Oy vay! This is my second Harry Potter fic, and I'm not even done writing the first one yet! Therefore I'll start this one (the idea's so good it's burning my brain), but I have priority on my first fic, Harry Potter and the Joke that Killed. If you don't mind, you can read that one too! I update that one every Saturday, so I'll try to update this one that much too but it's so hard! And I'm so lazy! I say it again: Oy vay!  
  
This one's pretty much like my (second) version of book five, so just use what happened in books 1-4 as your guide and hopefully you won't get lost!  
  
Disclaimer: Okay, I'm only going to say this once at the beginning of chapter 1, but it applies to all of my writing on this story hereafter: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. ONLY THIS PLOT. Dunno why it's so important for me to say that, but hey, better safe than sorry, right?  
  
* * * * *  
  
Harry Potter was sitting miserably in number four Privet Drive, having just gotten back from the depressing ride home from all he knew and loved. Summer vacation had begun, and Harry couldn't be sadder.  
  
Granted, he'd just had one of the most exerting final exams of his life: the TriWizard Tournament. Images still haunted the outskirts of Harry's mind, but he refused to let them fully surface or he knew he'd break down. It was just too much. Cedric Diggory lying dead, Wormtail cutting off his own hand. The Dark Lord's snake-like crimson eyes running their gaze over Harry's unprotected body, hungry and evil.  
  
And so that's where he was, sitting miserably on the little couch, when the doorbell rang. "Answer that, boy." Uncle Vernon barked in Harry's general direction, not bothering to look over his newspaper at the thing he hated most. Begrudgingly, Harry rose and ambled over to the front door. The sight that met his eyes both scared and pleased him.  
  
On the perfectly normal porch, the same porch that the Dursley's so liked to keep oddity-free, was standing the most delightfully odd person Harry had ever laid eyes upon. She was a tall girl, barely an inch shorter than Harry himself, with long, baby-fine blond hiar surrounding her clear blue eyes, which were excessively outlined in black eye make-up. Her clothes were what stood out the most: there is nowhere really to begin but the combat boots. They went halfway up her calf, muddy and worn. Above those shoes, a pair of fishnet tights were flirting beneath a knee-length black skirt. And her shirt was what pleased Harry the most: it was a white tank-top with the word 'FREAK' hand painted on it in a brilliant orange.  
  
"H-Hello. May I help you?" asked Harry. Upon seeing him, the girl's eyes lit up almost as much as his were.  
  
"Harry?" the girl inquired, and the boy thought that he must be dreaming. "Harry Potter?"  
  
Thoughts raced through Harry's mind. Was she a witch, and spotted his telltale scar, remembering it from some past photo? Could she be a spy for Voldemort? Had he won some sort of fabulous prize? But one thought was dominating above all the others: was she single?  
  
"Yeah, that's me. Why?" Harry replied eagerly.  
  
"Oh my gosh! Don't you remember me? It's Jacie Lagne! From Churchill Elementary?" she prompted. Suddenly Harry recalled a skinny little blond girl that always seemed to be put in his class in primary school. She was the only person that was ever nice to him, and was ridiculed about as much as he was. She was a foster kid, her parents were killed when she was very young, she had told him. Jacie had been his only comrade, and in the excitement of Hogwarts and all he'd completely forgotten about his one friend in the muggle world.  
  
"Wow. It really has been forever, huh? How've you been?" Harry replied, taking a step out the door and shaking her hand.  
  
"Oh, alright. As you can see," Jacie replied with a wink, gesturing down at her getup. "I go to Stonewall now, but whatever happened to you? I've missed you, Harry."  
  
At the words 'I've missed you,' Harry went weak and it was all he could do not to fall down right then. He wasn't Mr. Confident around girls, especially Jacie, who seemed to be Mrs. Confident. "Oh, I, uh - boarding school," Harry lied. "I've missed you too." He put in awkwardly.  
  
Just then Uncle Vernon walked by, and about had a coronary. "Who is this?" he muttered to Harry through a clenched jaw.  
  
"Jacie, this is my Uncle Vernon. This is Jacie Lagne, a friend from school." Harry said, but immediately afterward wanting to take back his introduction.  
  
The beefy man's face turned a shade of ashy mauve and his left eyelid began to twitch. Suddenly, the top blew off and the volcano erupted. "SCHOOL?! I DON'T WANT ONE OF - OF THOSE FREAKS IN THIS HOUSEHOLD!!" Uncle Vernon bellowed, taking a menacing step towards Jacie. 'Oh crap.' Harry thought, before averting a massacre.  
  
"No no no," said Harry, stepping in between his Uncle and Jacie and placing his small hands on the man's broad shoulders. "She's an old friend. From elementary school, Uncle Vernon, remember Churchill?"  
  
At once the raging man stopped, his face returned to normal, and he was no longer irate. Just pleasantly scornful, as usual. "Oh." He stated simply. It would have been fine if he stopped there. Oh, how Harry would have loved to pass it off as bipolar tendencies, but no. Uncle Vernon had to go and explain. "I thought you meant someone from St. Brutus' Acadamy for Incurably Criminal Boys." He said, accenting the false name of the school as a threat as to what might happen if the "M" word was ever hinted to again.  
  
'Oh Lord, my life is over. OVER. Now I'm incurably criminal, she thinks I'm a psycho, oh Lord, please just let her have gone deaf. Let her be deaf.' Harry prayed, slowly turning around to Jacie.  
  
But she was laughing.  
  
Laughing! Jacie was doubled over in hysterics, black tears streaming down from her face, clutching her middle. Laughing! Harry glanced at Uncle Vernon's face, which had reverted back to ashy purple, but the man let out a bewildered "Harumph" and walked back inside the house, slamming the door behind him. Harry heard the bolt turn in the lock before focusing his attention back on his new/old friend.  
  
"Your uncle. he's a hoot." Jacie said, wheezing slightly and wiping her eyes.  
  
"Hoot, huh? Well, you could say that. but you'd be lying out your knickers." Harry joked, then blushed. He'd actually said the word 'knickers!' Aloud! TO A GIRL!! But obviously, Jacie was not your average 'girl.'  
  
"So, we've got a lot of catching up to do, Harry," Jacie remarked, taking his hand. A little alarm went off in Harry's mind, screaming *okay, this amazing chick is HOLDING your hand, she's holding YOUR hand, she's holding your HAND!!* but Harry just smiled, enjoying the niceness of it. "You want to go up to the Dairy Mart?" she asked.  
  
Again, Harry smiled. He had no idea what the heck a Dairy Mart was, or where it happened to be exactly. Being a wizard, not to mention being under constant house arrest by the Dursleys, had alienated him a bit from the muggle world. "Ngh. s-sure." he answered.  
  
So Jacie Lagne, goddess from the center of punk abyss, and the most magical muggle he'd ever laid eyes on, was taking Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who- Lived, out to the Dairy Mart (whatever on God's green earth that turned out to be).  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Wowie, my intro chapter is up! I know, I know, it's super short, but that's just b/c it's an INTRO. Intro's are there to see if I've got the big winner here, or the big don't-touch-it-with-a-twelve-foot-pole. But don't worry, I'll post whether you like my story or not. But I'd much rather you do. ;)  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com (email me please, all's I get is stupid junk mail. I'd much rather hear from you fine people!) 


	2. Reluctant Partings and Equally Reluctant...

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Two  
  
"Reluctant Partings and Equally Reluctant Introductions"  
  
A/N: Wowie! A review already, after one measly intro chapter? *bows down* I AM NOT WORTHY!!  
  
Moomood256: yah, the spell checker is my bestest friend, my spelling sucks before the red jagged line pops up. ;) thanx for reviewing!  
  
* * * * *  
  
The Dairy Mart actually turned out to be an ice-cream shop, to Harry's delight. Although Harry would have gladly accompanied Jacie to the local dump if she would go with him.  
  
"Buenos Tardes, Manalo." Jacie greeted the man behind the counter.  
  
"Ah, hola Senorita Lag-ne." the man answered, mispronouncing her name. She simply smiled kindly at him though.  
  
"One double dip peaches and cream on a waffle cone, por favor." she ordered. Harry had no idea what was going on, it was as if there were two languages being spoken at once. There was the Spanish, which the boy had trouble with already, but the double whatsit and huh on a diddly-doodle, thingymajig? As if the Dursleys had ever taken him to get ice-cream before! This was going to be his first (muggle) cone.  
  
"An' for zee muchacho?" Manalo inquired.  
  
"The same, please." Harry answered, taking the safe route.  
  
"Por favor." Jacie interjected.  
  
"Bad flavor? I got the wrong one?" Harry asked, terrified.  
  
"No, I mean 'por favor.' Please in Spanish is 'por favor.'" Jacie corrected, laughing in her loud guffaw again. Harry blushed.  
  
"'Ere ees dos peeches y cream-e." the man replied, handing over two towering desserts. Harry had no clue what it was he ordered, or what it was the man was saying, but Jacie handled everything beautifully.  
  
"Mucho gracias, Manalo." Jacie thanked, handing the man a few pounds and getting her change. Harry felt bad for making her pay, but he didn't have any muggle money, and wasn't sure a Galleon would go over too well with the cashier.  
  
"So," Jacie began, walking with Harry out the door. "What have you been up to for the last five years?"  
  
"Growing up, mostly. I've made a lot of friends at school, now that Dudley isn't there to beat them all up." told Harry. In some way, he felt like he didn't have to put up appearances about being tough or guarded, like The-Boy-Who-Lived was supposed to. He could be sincere, tell his real feelings and thoughts, without caution to if he was playing the correct part. In fact, Jacie had never even heard of him, Harry Potter, as the famous boy he was. That was part of her charm.  
  
"Funny, that git never scared me any." Jacie remarked with a triumphant grin.  
  
"I think he was afraid of you, actually. But he teased you all the same, I always admired the way you took it."  
  
"Oh, it's nothing. After growing up in a foster home full of older 'siblings,' you learn the art of ignorance."  
  
Harry pondered this for a moment, licking his ice cream. The Art of Ignorance. this girl certainly had a lot of insight. "I had no idea ignorance was such an artistic form of expression. Just call me Picasso."  
  
Her shameless guffaw rang out. "Just act like they're not there, Harry. Like you have no idea they're trying to make you feel bad, totally oblivious. Like you're much too caught up with living to deal with crap like that."  
  
"That's a great outlook."  
  
"Eh. If you spend enough time on the outside, like I have, you develop that sort of philosophy."  
  
There was a soft silence, comfortable and friendly, until Harry had to ask. He simply had to, there was no stopping his brain. "So, how long have you been an, erm, outsider?" But the way he said it, you could tell he was referring to her appearance. The outfit did look really nice on her, but it just screamed so many things! Harry wondered what had prompted her to change from the little girl in cowboy boots and flowered leggings. well, come to think of it, she'd never really dressed according to normal style.  
  
"Since about Stonewall. We've got a uniform, you know, but I've got my ways to work around it. Like buttons," she said, showing him the anti- fur and vegetarian pins on her shirt. "The school handbook hasn't outlawed those. Yet. And Herman. They haven't banned Herman."  
  
"Who's Herman?" Harry asked, hoping against hope that it wasn't her boyfriend.  
  
"They're my boots. I named them." she stated matter-of-fact. Well, not quite the answer Harry was looking for, but the same general outcome.  
  
Actually, Jacie NEVER had quite the answer you were looking for.  
  
(^*^)  
  
The summer months flew by, with every day consisting of a trip to the Dairy Mart for an ice cream and a walk to the park, filled with conversations about life, school, and society. you can probably guess that Harry did most of the listening on Jacie's theories of society. She had a fair lot of them, too.  
  
This was one of Harry's particular favorites. "This is just too true," she'd begin, and that's how you knew she was about to state a theory. "Men spend the first nine months of their creation trying to get out, and the rest of their lives trying to get back in."  
  
Okay, so it wasn't Sophistication City, but they were a couple of kids. It was the closest thing to young love that Harry had yet to experience, and it was great. He learned so much about himself through her. That he preferred to wiggle his toes in warm sand over warm grass. That the color black wasn't depressing all the time, it could be viewed as steady and unchanging. And that not all girls were like Hermione; smart and eager, and bordering on annoying. In fact, Harry learned that girls were downright nice. Well, more like girl, considering the fact that he spent his time with just Jacie.  
  
Being with her even made time with the Dursleys seem more bearable, with their daily recess to look forward to. Whenever Dudley began to torment Harry about being scrawny, or weird, or even once about the fact that his parents were dead, Harry just wielded the 'art of ignorance' and turned a deaf ear to whatever Dudley was saying that time. After all, who was the little 'pig in a wig' to tease Harry? Though maybe not valued in his own house by his own family, there were plenty of other people out there in his world that loved him.  
  
Harry felt bad that he had to lie to Jacie the whole time about 'his world,' hiding the fact that he was a wizard. It was the most important thing in his life, and to not be able to share it with the person he cared about most. it was heart wrenching. Harry maintained that he attended boarding school in Sweden during the year, though he almost slipped up when she asked for a school photo. He was about to break out his wallet and show her pictures of his friends before a pair of Ron's moving hands inside the photograph stopped him.  
  
"OH! Um, er, no, I left them at home. Aw shucks, guess that's too bad then. So, what about your school, huh?" Harry said quickly, changing the subject.  
  
Jacie even gave him a birthday present, a little poem that she burned into a scrap of leather. It was entitled "Lightning-Bearer," the nickname she had called him when they were little because of the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. It was the most touching gift Harry'd ever received, which wasn't saying much because he got his first gift ever just five years ago.  
  
So, as you can tell, come September it was very hard to leave his old/newfound friend. "You promise you'll write, won't you?" Jacie asked, her blue eyes glistening.  
  
"Of course." Harry answered. Although, since his exit from the muggle world, he'd totally forgotten how the postal service operated.  
  
And then, in a moment Harry would drag up through his memories in many of the nights to come, Jacie lurched forward and wrapped her arms around him. "Don't turn out to be a jerk, you hear? You know my theory on jerks." She whispered into his ear.  
  
"That they're all really just scared but pleasant on the inside." Harry quoted.  
  
Jacie looked confused, and pulled slightly away to look her friend in the eye. "No, the other one."  
  
"That they should all either be shot, or start their own colony on another planet and leave us nice people alone?" Harry prompted.  
  
"Yeah, that's it," said Jacie. "I'll keep you posted on new theories, not to worry about that."  
  
"I'm on the edge of my seat, awaiting your owl." replied Harry, smiling.  
  
Jacie's bellowing guffaw swirled around in Harry's memories, capping them all. "My owl? What are you talking about, weirdo?" she inquired.  
  
"Nothing, just nonsense."  
  
"Ah, you know how I love it when you talk nonsense to me."  
  
After one last hug that ended up spanning about five, Uncle Vernon cleared his throat.  
  
They had been standing in front of the train station for a full fifteen minutes, Harry's Uncle awkwardly watching the two and trying to make them uncomfortable. But if Jacie had taught Harry anything, it was 'the art of ignorance.'  
  
(^*^)  
  
"Oy! Harry, over here!" Ron called upon spying his friend emerge from the crowd climbing onto the train.  
  
"Hey Ron!" Harry exclaimed, rushing over to his compartment. This was the first time he'd seen him in months. "How have you been?"  
  
"Fine, I guess. a bit worried about you, though. What happened, did you fall off the face of the earth? You never answered my owls!" Ron complained.  
  
"Oh, sorry about that, buddy," Harry apologized ineptly, trying to cover up his secret. "I had a rough summer."  
  
Ron's face paled. "Y-you don't mean the Dursley's. did they beat you, Harry?"  
  
Harry almost laughed out loud. "No, not that kind of rough. Okay, you win. Here," Harry said, leaning forward and lowering his voice to a whisper. Ron's face looking so worried over him made Harry give in. It wouldn't hurt to tell his best friend about Jacie, now would it?  
  
"I met a girl over the summer." Harry explained.  
  
"HA!!" was Ron's response.  
  
"Wha. hey, now, c'mon!" Harry exclaimed. This was NOT very pleasant of him.  
  
"Ha, ha, ha. ooh, Harry," wheezed Ron, wiping the corners of his eyes. "So, go on, tell me about the Lucky Lady."  
  
Harry, however resentful of his supposed best friend's attitude, was driven on by the fact that he might just make the guy jealous. "Her name's Jacie Lagne, she went to primary school with me, before I went to Hogwarts."  
  
"Before Hogwarts - but Harry, she's a muggle?" Ron rasped incredulously.  
  
"Yeah, but you'd hardly even notice it with her. She's so amazing, Ron, she has theories on society and people and everything. Jacie was the only person that was ever nice to me with Dudley around, intimidating everyone else but her." said Harry.  
  
"Aww, has ickle Harry-kins got a girlfriend?" Ron teased.  
  
"Shut up! Jacie's a friend. a really good friend. yeah, I like her, but." Harry rambled, trying to figure out his feelings. Jacie just seemed so unattainable, just too friendly to be intimate.  
  
"You never got any 'action,' did you Harry?" guessed Ron.  
  
"Hey now! Don't go saying stuff like that!"  
  
"But it's true, isn't it?"  
  
Harry sighed. "Yeah. Gosh, I really like Jacie."  
  
But the friend's conversation was cut short when a student walked by the compartment, then froze cold, peering inside.  
  
"Can we help you, little girl?" asked Ron.  
  
"Yes, I was just wondering if you could possibly be any ruder to a new student." the girl replied cuttingly. Ron clamped his mouth shut in surprise. She was kind of short, a full four inches below Harry, with tiny features besides her large, blue eyes, hidden behind thick black-framed glasses. Her cropped dark hair was sort of in a shaggy, unkempt bowl cut, pinned back with pink babyish barrettes. She obviously looked like a first year.  
  
"Well, the other first years are in the back compartment huddled together, crying for their mommies, why don't you go join them?" Ron retorted, a full eight seconds after her statement. It was a pitiful comeback, and that must be why she began to giggle.  
  
"First year, well, that's not quite my style." replied the girl, amidst giggles.  
  
"Why?" Harry asked, and the blue eyes quickly turned themselves upon the boy.  
  
"Harry Potter. my, I've heard a lot about you, is any of it true?" the girl asked, ignoring his question.  
  
Harry cringed, remembering the scathing articles former journalist, current prisoner insect Rita Skeeter had published about him. Heaven knows what sort of impressions the girl had gotten of him from those. "Probably not, if you're a fan of Witch Weekly."  
  
"So you haven't really come face to face with The Dark Lord?" she questioned.  
  
"Well, that's true, but the other rumors are a crock." Harry told her knowingly.  
  
"Like what?" she pressed. Harry felt backed into a corner now, like he was fighting for his reputation.  
  
"Like, erm. I've never dated Hermione Granger, for one." explained Harry.  
  
Then the girl began to giggle again, a bit uproariously. "Well of course I never believed that!" she said, like Harry was an idiot. His face began to burn.  
  
"How do you know Hermione?" Harry sputtered.  
  
"I've seen her picture before, with the article. and I saw her arguing with a blond-haired boy a few compartments down. You two just didn't seem the type." the girl described.  
  
This remark infuriated Harry. "You think you know so much about me, do you? Well, I'll tell you, Miss. Miss." Harry searched for her name, and found that she hadn't shared it with them yet.  
  
"Trinity Scarlet McGundron-Philips," put in the girl quietly. "But you can call me Trinny. All my friends do."  
  
This conversation had just taken an extreme 360, from sarcastic enemies to nicknaming friends. Trinny sure had some nerve. "Miss Trinny." Harry breathed, at a loss for words. A menacing brat before, now the image had changed along with the nature of their talk, and standing before Harry and Ron was now an innocent-looking girl.  
  
"Forgive me, that is my way of trying to make friends. Let's start over," said Trinny, sticking out her hand to Ron. "I'm Trinity Philips, a new Hogwarts fifth year. And you are?"  
  
Harry saw Ron's eyes bug out, mouthing the words 'fifth year,' but he remained polite. "Ron Weasley, a Gryffindor fifth year." he stated, shaking her hand.  
  
"Nice to meet you, Ron. And you are?" Trinny said, turning towards Harry now.  
  
"Harry Potter." introduced Harry, grasping her tiny hand. She really didn't look his age, but maybe the tiny features, large eyes, and petite frame were misleading. Trinny certainly had attitude to make up for it, though.  
  
Right after their introduction, in walked Hermione, looking put off and flustered. "Honestly, Draco is a grade-A prat, I simply walk by his compartment and he pulls out his wand on me. Luckily, I read ahead in the DADA book and learned how to block curses quite well, and defended myself while inflicting the attacker the necessary damage, oh hello, I'm Hermione Granger, who might you be?" Hermione explained in one long breath. Behind Hermione, Harry and Ron saw a red-faced Draco Malfoy dashing down the corridor, clutching a gigantic nose beneath his hands. They had a sneaking suspicion that an Engorgio Charm had occurred.  
  
"I'm Trinity Philips, but you may call me Trinny. I'm a new student at Hogwarts, but a fifth year in age." said Trinny.  
  
"Oh, what school are you transferring from?" Hermione asked as polite as can be.  
  
"None, really. You see I just found out that I was a witch, I got the Hogwarts letter a few weeks ago. I'm to be regarded as a fifth-year, even though I'm at the level of a first-year." Trinny enlightened the others.  
  
That reason didn't really click with Harry though; usually if you had any magical ability at all you got the acceptance letter, whether surprise or not, in time for first year. Something odd was afoot.  
  
"I'm sure you're excited to begin learning!" Hermione remarked, and the girl giggled again.  
  
"Ha, that's a good one, Hermione! Actually, the one thing I am excited about it The Sorting." said Trinny.  
  
"Yeah, I remember my sorting. I was so terrified that I was going to be put in Slytherin, but thank goodness I got Gryffindor." Harry remarked.  
  
"So you all are in Gryffindor? I sure hope I get in there, then." said Trinny.  
  
After another awkward moment of silence, suddenly the new girl clapped her hand to her forehead. "Oh, I've forgotten to check in with Professor McGonagall! I'll catch up with you guys later, right?" Trinny exclaimed, with a special look at Harry.  
  
"Of course." Harry answered, staring again into those blue eyes. they reminded him so much of Jacie's, and out of the blue his body actually convulsed with longing for his good friend.  
  
The girl ran out the compartment door, her thin sandal flats clapping down the corridor. "Well, that was certainly interesting, hmm?" Ron commented after the footsteps ceased, raising an eyebrow at his friends.  
  
"Yeah." Harry agreed softly, staring at the door she just exited. Her vibrance still seemed to linger in the room, and in his mind.  
  
"So, we were just getting to the good part of Harry's summer." Ron continued.  
  
"Ooh, did I miss something juicy?" squealed Hermione.  
  
"Harry's got a girlfriend." Ron teased.  
  
"Aww, how sweet! What's her name?" Hermione prodded.  
  
"Jacie Lagne, she went to primary school with me. And yes, she is a muggle, and no, that does not bother me." Harry rattled off quickly.  
  
"Well, it shouldn't. My Aunt Enid, whom I've recently discovered to be where I get my magical blood, married a muggle man, and their marriage worked out fine. Together fifty years before a chandelier fell on his head." defended Hermione.  
  
"Erm. good for you?" Ron said, and Hermione shot him a look. He grinned broadly at her, and she gave in, smiling back.  
  
"Speaking of summer love, Hermione, how did your visit to Bulgaria go?" Harry said, turning the subject on her now. It was an awful thing to do, but better her than him.  
  
Harry saw Ron grit his teeth at the mention of Hermione's love affair with young Quidditch star Viktor Krum. "It's none of your business, but if you must know, I had a wonderful time in Bulgaria. Viktor behaved as a perfect gentleman, and he's going to visit me at my house during Christmas Break. So there." the girl said, blushing.  
  
"Did you drop off Rita Skeeter while you were there, like you'd promised?" Ron asked.  
  
"Yes. I figured a vacation in Bulgaria would do the little wanker some good. Before I let her out, I told her that if any stories leaked out about me, or the TriWizard Tournament, the Ministry would learn about her being an illegal Animagus. I think she'll keep her silence, don't you?" Hermione explained.  
  
"Hermione, that's blackmail!" accused Ron.  
  
"Well, Ronald, I was teaching the woman a life lesson. I think that constitutes some blackmail, in order to protect the innocent." spat Hermione, tight-lipped.  
  
"Teach me to contradict the great Hermione Granger." Ron mumbled to Harry. Harry disguised his snickering amidst a well-timed coughing fit to avoid a beating from Hermione.  
  
"What about your summer, Ron?" Harry inquired, not wanting to torture his friend any longer.  
  
"Loveless, as usual," Ron explained bitterly. "Quite uneventful also, since both you and Hermione couldn't drag yourselves to Diagon Alley with me."  
  
"Sorry about that, Ron, but I had. pressing engagements. Did you get my things for me? I really appreciate it." Harry apologized.  
  
"Yeah, right. 'pressing engagements' my foot. I know what 'engagements' you're talking about, loverboy. Here, take your books." Ron said, shoving a bagful of supplies at Harry.  
  
Harry winked at his friend. "Thanks, Ron."  
  
In no time at all the train began to slow, and up ahead loomed the castle's impressive silhouette. Their fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had begun.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Ah, and chapter two is complete! Sure hope you like it! I'd hate to be working so hard on this story, and yet nobody is reading it. *sniff*  
  
How do you like Trinny? She's another original creation of mine, and a pretty important character. *hint, hint, nudge, nudge.*  
  
Well, talk to y'all next Saturday, and keep on reading! Thanks bundles!  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com (don't forget to write!) 


	3. Back to Cool

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Three  
  
" 'Back to Cool' "  
  
A/N: Hellooo? Is anyone out there? Is this thing on? Testing, testing, one, two, three. hmm, there's got to be some reason that nobody's reviewing! I hope it's not my story, otherwise I shall go hide under a rock somewhere and cry 'til kingdom come. Or something to that affect...  
  
* * * * *  
  
The Hogwarts Express squealed it's breaks, coming to a halt in front of the massive lake, the moonlight bouncing off the shimmering water. Harry, Ron, and Hermione heard the familiar sound of Hagrid's gruff but sweet voice shouting, "Firs'years, over 'ere!" Harry saw the shadowy form of Trinny Philips scurry towards the big man and hop in a boat, blending in quite snugly with the other shrimpy first years.  
  
The eerie horseless carriages pulled up to the older students, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione clambered in one along with Neville Longbottom, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil. "So, how was your summer?" Lavender asked Hermione.  
  
"Fine, I guess." she answered.  
  
"No, I mean, how was your summer? Come on, details, details!" Lavender pressed, and both her and Pansy began to snicker.  
  
"Does she have to spell it out for you?" Parvati inquired, rolling her eyes. "How did your vacation to Viktor go?"  
  
A look of dread stretched across Hermione's face, and she looked desperately from Harry to Ron, searching for a way out of this. this 'girl talk.' Unfortunately, the two eager faces sat there, waiting for this juicy gossip. "Erm. well, Viktor lives in a small villa near the outskirts of town, near the mountains. His mother is a pediatrician, and his father works for a Supermarket in town."  
  
"And.?" the girls prompted, leaning still forward.  
  
"And he has a little sister that's in the third year, her name's Melva."  
  
'Melva' was clearly not the juicy gossip that the two girls were longing for. They took sidelong glances at each other and began laughing hysterically.  
  
"That is the -"  
  
"Saddest -"  
  
"Most pathetic -"  
  
"Oh you poor dear -"  
  
"Thing I've heard -"  
  
"Yet."  
  
"Ever."  
  
Lavender and Parvati said, finishing each other's sentences mid- laugh. Hermione looked as if she was ready to curse both of them then and there, but she refrained and held her chin up high. "I had a delightful time." she said, but the other two were much too busy whispering excitedly to take notice. Ron patted her on the arm supportively before the carriage door popped open in front of the main doors, and out tumbled the six of them.  
  
But the splendor of the Great Hall soon chased away all Hermione's sullenness. No mater how familiar you were with Hogwarts, no matter how long you had attended, the first glimpse of the hall after a long summer break was always breathtaking. The candles suspended mid-air, the rich maroons rolling with the vibrant yellows, the lush greens flirting with the royal blues; all colors that looked good enough to eat.  
  
"Finally," Harry thought to himself. "I'm home."  
  
Sitting in the Great Hall and catching up with old friends, the loud hum of conversation was silenced when Professor McGonagall entered with the first years to be sorted. Most of them looked terrified, much like they did every year, with the exception of Trinny, who walked at the very end of the line with her face shining so that it looked like it might be her birthday.  
  
The battered hat sat expectantly on a stool in front of the Head Table. After it had commanded a silence from the knowing upperclassmen, and newcomers that soon followed suit, it opened it's brim wide and sang the sorting song:  
  
The Sorting Hat's quite scratched and torn, Dirty, smelly, stained and worn. Haven't your Mummies ever said "Don't judge by looks, but smarts instead!" This old hat you see sittin' here You place it up around your ears And it'll have a peek inside And see which house you're to abide. Gryffindor contains the bold Nerves of steel their hearts do hold. Though Hufflepuff may take the meek, Also justice and faith they seek. In Ravenclaw dwell the wise, Knowledge and learning are their prize. And in crafty Slytherin Power dominates therin. I promise I'll make no mistake And after just a short debate I'll call it out With a great shout Where you will unearth your fate!  
  
After the initial shock of a talking hat wore off, the first years seemed to enjoy the song. Some even bobbed their heads in time to the rhythm. A thunderous applause punctuated the ending, and The Sorting had begun.  
  
"Adelade, Kira" Professor McGonagall barked out, and a tiny blonde scurried over and sat on the stool. Seconds later, in a commanding voice that far rivaled McGonagall's, the hat yelled "RAVENCLAW!" The whole table buried her underneath handshakes and welcoming hugs, and she managed to finally take a seat just as "Babburn, Tony" was named Hufflepuff.  
  
The poor Hufflepuff table. even after all this time, you could still see the solemn looks of sadness on some of their faces about Cedric's death. Professor Sprout had dedicated her best greenhouse to him, being head of Hufflepuff House she had taken the tragedy especially hard.  
  
The announcement of "Boyle, Beauford." as a "SLYTHERIN!" jerked Harry's attention back to the present. He watched the boy being welcomed by the Bloody Baron, a thing he didn't seem to like much. The sorting was much more fun when you got to be a part of it, Harry thought decidedly as "Chestnut, Skylar" was named the first new Gryffindor.  
  
Harry clapped along with the rest of the table nicely, and for the first time noticed the new teacher sitting at the Staff Table. He must have been the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That would fit, because Professor Snape was favoring him with a particularly nasty look. Poor guy, the Potions Master been ousted from the position for the fifth year running. Harry got the sinking feeling that Potions was going to be even more unbearable this year.  
  
The new professor looked very young, probably not past twenty-five or so, but he was very tall and well built. Already Harry could see that many girls were favoring the man with the seductive glare that he himself only dreamed of attracting. The new teacher had shaggy auburn hair that looked meticulously cared for in a way that was supposed to give the impression that it wasn't, and big, brown eyes that would fall under the category 'puppy dog.' He looked somewhat familiar, but Harry couldn't quite place the face.  
  
As "Zerkmeyer, Wadsworth" joined the Ravenclaw table, Harry was awakened back into the world of the living. At the front of the hall, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up and utter silence followed. "And now, for our, erm, special student. Trinity McGundron-Philips is a fifth year, but was unfortunately detained in her attending Hogwarts up until this year. We are very pleased to have her with us now." Dumbledore explained, once more making Harry's mind whir with mystery. Something about this girl wasn't adding up. what could she be hiding?  
  
Confidently Trinny approached the stool and jammed the hat on her head. There was a moment of silence while the hat made it's decision. It took a long time, but Trinny couldn't look calmer. Harry began to suspect that she might've fallen asleep, but not even a full minute later her eyes popped open and the hat hollered "GRYFFINDOR!" to the whole hall.  
  
Like she had known it all along, Trinny strolled up to the Gryffindor table and took a parked next to Neville, who was sitting right across from Harry. Neville promptly introduced himself and shook her hand, and she smiled warmly at him. She was politely inquisitive, asking about the enchanted ceiling and past Sortings.  
  
"Welcome." Harry greeted, once Trinny's conversation with Neville had ceased.  
  
"Thanks!" she replied brightly, smiling excitedly at him. As she leaned forward to inspect the lace tablecloth, Harry saw a heavy, dark pendant swing from her neck that had previously been disguised within her robes. A searing pain darted across Harry's scar, and his fork clattered to his plate noisily as the boy clasped his hand to his head. Quickly, Trinny caught the pendant with her hand and stuck it back under her shirt, glancing around to check if anyone had seen.  
  
Harry pretended like he hadn't, the pain in his head reduced to just a dull throbbing now.  
  
Now that the sorting was finished, Dumbledore's customary speech was about to begin. The man stood up once again, and the silence came almost immediately. "This year will be one of the toughest, and most memorable, yet. Last year's events," a few daring murmurs broke out at the mention of Harry's scrape with Voldemort. "have caused security around Hogwarts to be upped yet again. We ask that nobody goes anywhere alone, especially at night, and the Forbidden Forest is completely off limits as usual." Dumbledore's eyes sparkled for a second, and Harry thought he saw a smile peep through the massive beard of his as he knew just how many times those rules would be broken.  
  
"Welcome, students both new and old, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" he announced grandly, and clapping his hands together, a feast suddenly materialized on their plates. Blood pudding, kidney pie, deviled eggs; Harry ate them all. Twice.  
  
Taking a big swig of pumpkin juice and washing down the last of his dessert, Harry sat back with a contented sigh and surveyed his fellow housemates. The first years looked even smaller this year, even younger and more babyish. Harry wondered, had that actually been him just a few short years ago? Had he ever really been that young, that innocent, that free of the haunting images of Voldemort's terror?  
  
NO! a firm voice in his head shouted, chasing away the dark clouds full of memories that threatened to invade Harry's mind. There was too much hurt there, too much pain and 'what if.' Harry adamantly refused to succumb to it. Defiantly, he took another bite of potatoes and gnawed on it viciously.  
  
In the Gryffindor common room that night, things were the normal party they were on the first day back. Of course Fred and George Weasley planted a few trick candies around, every once and a while people bursting into feathers or sporting rather corpulent tongues. Yes, Harry was even glad to be back to the daily fear of eating a sweet, in case it might be a proud product of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  
  
(^*^)  
  
At breakfast the next morning, schedules were distributed to all the students. Monday morning Harry and Ron had the pleasure of Divination with Professor Trelawney, and then after that was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.  
  
"Oh, not that primadonna again!" Ron groaned.  
  
"At least it's for the last time. Next year we get to pick new elective classes, more specific ones. Like curse breaking, or magical medicine, or advanced magical creatures. I can't wait." Harry explained wistfully.  
  
"To take those classes, or to be rid of Professor Trelawney?" Ron asked.  
  
Harry laughed. "Both."  
  
Ever since Harry's correct prediction of Buckbeak the Hippogriff's escape from death, Professor Trelawney had regarded him as some kind of sage. "Boy, you have the gift." she said for the millionth time, foreseeing his bloody demise to the whole class for the millionth time also. "Watch your back, boy, I see an enemy entering your life." Professor Trelawney predicted, or rather, scientifically guessed. An enemy was always in Harry's life, being who he was. She was just going with the odds. Little did she know, she was quite near becoming his enemy herself.  
  
"You," Professor Trelawney said, pointing a wavering finger at Lavender Brown. "A tall, red-haired man will enter your life and steal your heart." Gasps broke out as Lavender turned and gave a disapproving open- mouthed glare at Ron, who sunk deep down into his pouf, no doubt wishing it would swallow him whole.  
  
"Old fraud." he muttered, glaring at Lavender in such a way that Harry could tell that even if the Professor Trelawney had made a correct prediction (which was as likely as the Slytherins hosting a ballet recital), that the only way something near a romance would happen between Ron and Lavender would involve the Body-Bind Curse and a strong pair of pliers.  
  
"Maybe she meant Fred or George." consoled Parvati, shooting Ron an equally evil look.  
  
After a futile moment of attempting to stay awake and pay attention, Ron and Harry fell asleep. Of course, if Professor Trelawney ever caught them, which she rarely did, they just acted like they were getting a strong prophecy about their deaths and she was sufficiently suckered into it.  
  
After their refreshing nap it was lunchtime. "Oh, awake now are you?" Lavender asked cuttingly when Harry and Ron sat down at the house table. Both her and Parvati were lacking the exact amount of brain cells needed to be level with Professor Trelawney, and the two girls considered her the Mucho Supremo of all teachers. It was the ultimate disrespect to view the woman as she really was: the Mucho Supremo of all cons.  
  
Twenty minutes late, Trinny scurried into the great hall for lunch. "Where have you been?" Harry inquired, looking at how flustered she seemed.  
  
"I got in an argument with my Muggle Studies teacher about how a telephone worked, and then she gave me detention!" Trinny explained, sliding into an empty seat next to Harry.  
  
Ron and Harry burst out laughing, but Hermione looked at Trinny like she was a bad little girl that disobeyed. "What did you say?" Harry asked.  
  
"That a phone sends sound vibrations through wires to whoever you're talking to at such a fast speed that it's like, immediate." Trinny relayed.  
  
Well, Hermione, Harry, and Trinny all began laughing, but the rest of the table just looked as if they just found out that Santa Claus didn't exist. "You mean it's your actual VOICE transmitted over MILLIONS of kilometers IMMEDIATELY?" asked Ron incredulously. "But that would be so HARD!"  
  
"Yeah. haven't you wondered what all the poles and wires were for?" Hermoine answered.  
  
"I just figured muggles did it the same as we did, except without the magic." Fred replied.  
  
"How do you guys do it?" wondered Harry.  
  
George thought about it for a second, then stated simply, "By magic."  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You people are so oblivious, even the teacher had no idea."  
  
"I know, that's why I got in such a big argument with her. Professor Newcastle claimed that a phone was just a microphone shouting something really, really loud."  
  
"What's a microphone?" Fred asked.  
  
"Like a megaphone." Hermione answered irritated.  
  
"What's a megaphone?" George asked, getting frantic from confusion.  
  
Hermione growled menacingly, but Trinny turned to George and explained it slowly and clearly, like he was a foreigner. Which he was, to the muggle world. "It's something that magnifies your voice many times."  
  
"Oh." Fred and George stated in unison, a double epiphany.  
  
"So wait, that's not it? The mecklephone making things louder, and the fellytone shouting them to the other person?" Ron asked, whispering and leaning towards her.  
  
Harry, Hermione, and Trinny exchanged bewildered glances. "Um, no." Trinny answered. "The megaphone makes things louder, but that's totally different than a telephone. A telephone sends signals over wires to another telephone. Comprende?"  
  
"Um, yes?" answered Ron, smiling hopelessly.  
  
"So wait, she gave you detention just for that?" said Harry.  
  
Trinny looked caught between sheepishness and pride. "No, not exactly. you see she wasn't pleased that I was showing her up, so she told me to sit down. So, I sat down and kept on lecturing her. She told me to shut up, so I stopped talking and took my wand and scrawled my complete explanation, in permanent script, around the room."  
  
Harry gasped out loud. "You actually did that!?"  
  
"Of course, I wasn't going to let that fat biddy push me around! I'll be glad to serve a measly detention if it means remembering the look on her face as she watched the golden ribbon of words wind its way around the room, spreading the good news that she was an imbecile. Ah, now that was precious." Trinny described, looking off into the air, presumably recalling Professor Figg's offended face.  
  
"Trinny, you've got character." Harry said, smiling and punching her on the shoulder. She smiled broadly and began wolfing down her sandwich as fast as she could.  
  
As a group, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Trinny, Neville, Lavender, and Parvati trudged out to the greenhouses. Poor Professor Sprout seemed rather deflated that day in Herbology, her bubbly and expressive attitude lacking since Cedric's death. He was her favorite student, so promising, and even though she didn't know the extent of the tragedy, it was still enough to dampen things a bit.  
  
"This unit, you will be learning about different antidotes for curse side- affects. After being under the Imperious Curse, for weeks or even months after a victim might spontaneously go motionless, their muscles relaxed and pupils unfocused, and fall to the floor. This can be avoided by Bubotuber Pus diluted by stagnant water that is hosting Hrangmunt larvae, then combined with Nocturne-Verona Berries," explained the small witch mechanically. "This is just one of the exciting combinations that you will learn to grow, prepare, and eventually, with the aide of Professor Snape, concoct and use."  
  
Harry and Ron didn't look forward to having Professor Snape anywhere near them. Potions was agonizing enough, but ruining a sunny Herbology lesson also? That was downright cruel!  
  
Taking a sidelong glance at Hermione, Harry saw her jotting down the antidote information for the Imperious Curse. After only a brief moment of wondering, a horrible memory floated without permission to the top of Harry's thoughts.  
  
It was that of Viktor Krum standing above Cedric Diggory, inflicting the Crutacious Curse upon the convulsing body at his feet. Cedric's tortured screams and contorted face called repulsion and action into Harry's mind, and Harry quickly knocked the Bulgarian unconscious.. Krum had been acting under the Imperious Curse though, not his own free will, Harry found out later to his immense relief. That was what the antidote was for, Hermione was going to write him about it. Harry presumed that during her vacation to Bulgaria, he'd had a few relapses into the comatose side-affect that Hermione had been forced to endure.  
  
Professor Sprout then dictated some notes on raising Nocturne-Verona Berries, which were a sour cherry-like fruit that made the one who ate it very lightheaded. They could only be exposed to full moonlight, and were a best crop in February, oddly enough. "One essay on the many uses of the berry, then, as homework. Off you go." the teacher assigned as class ended and students flooded out of the Diggory Greenhouse, newly christened at the beginning of the year.  
  
"The first day of classes, and we've already got homework!" griped Ron.  
  
"I can't wait to begin!" Trinny squealed, and everyone glared at her with the goody-two-shoes accusing look usually reserved for Hermione. "Well, this stuff is just so new to me." Trinny added quickly, looking down at her books.  
  
"New? What, are you muggle-born or something?" Ron asked.  
  
Trinny got a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face and opened and closed her mouth several times before she spoke. "Oh, erm, you could say that, yeah.. so, what about that Squid-pitch team, huh?" She diverted the subject, and Harry memorized the mixed expression on her face, filing it away to analyze later.  
  
"It's Quidditch, Trinny." Harry corrected.  
  
"Yes, um, of course!" she giggled, turning bright red and gulping nervously. Harry could tell that she was on the spot, and aided in steering conversation in another direction. He hated seeing her like this; looking like a beautiful and exotic animal backed into a corner and trying desperately to escape. A very beautiful and exotic animal.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: NOTE: I borrowed lots of paragraphs from my first story, Joke that Killed, like the sorting song and sorting names. actually, just basically the whole sorting part. So. is Harry falling for two girls, both Jacie and Trinny? Hmm, interesting. that is, if you people actually care! REVIEW, for heaven's sake! What does it take, a bribe? Well, I'm not willing to stoop to that level.  
  
Look, if you'll just review my stuff then I'll review yours. How's that??  
  
PWEESE! *gives big sad teary puppy dog eyes*  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	4. To Juggle the Muggle?

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Four  
  
"To Juggle or Not to Juggle."  
  
A/N: Okay, so that humiliating display of groveling got me a review. YAY-RAH!! I'm elated, whoop de doo!!  
  
* * * * *  
  
Tuesday's classes were Defense Against the Dark Arts and then, after lunch, Care of Magical Creatures. Harry hoped that this year Hagrid would have enough confidence to actually teach useful classes.  
  
The new DADA teacher was a Mr. Morgan Wood, which immediately brought to Harry's mind the reason he looked so familiar. He must be Oliver Wood's brother!  
  
(A/N: Okay, I'm picturing the Oliver Wood from the movie, Sean Biggerstaff, you know? You must keep this in mind to properly understand why all the girl students are going gaga over this guy. For those of you that don't know, Sean Biggerstaff is a sex god, oh my gosh indeed. Sexy man.. oh yes, back to the story now!)  
  
Even Hermione was just a little more giggly and smiley than usual, but Lavender and Parvati were enough to make Harry and Ron physically gag. "My goodness, that man is so adorable! What I would give for just one snog." Lavender cooed after class.  
  
Ron and Harry began pantomiming vomiting all over each other. "You know the best thing about him?" Parvati replied, shooting an evil glare towards the two boys. "He's so much more mature than the guys we know."  
  
"Ouch, Parvati, that was quite a childish thing to say." said Harry.  
  
"Yeah, I don't think Morgie appreciates bratty little girls." Ron added, earning quite the scathing look from the two.  
  
"I don't see what all the fuss is about," Trinny remarked, making Ron and Harry like her a lot more and Lavender and Parvati despise her a lot more. "I'm not all that into guys with the three B's."  
  
"What are the three B's?" Hermione asked.  
  
"You know, brawny, big muscles, and brainless." explained Trinny.  
  
"Ooh, way to go Trinity!" Harry praised, clapping her on the back.  
  
She looked up at him and blushed, then continued. "I go more for the string bean, mop-top, mischievous and laid-back guys myself. Professor Morgan's all yours, ladies." Ron took note that Trinny's description of her perfect man strangely illustrated Harry's profile.  
  
Professor Wood actually did fit Trinny's opinion of him. He was very tall, and very well built, and very dim-witted. Harry figured the only reason he was a good auror is because he could either speak Troll, or, if negotiation didn't work, he could wrestle it to the ground. It looked like there was another Gilderoy Lockhart on their hands.  
  
Hagrid really did seem to have more confidence this year. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Trinny went to visit him in his hut during lunch to help him prepare for his first lesson. "'Ave some real intrestin' 'ssignment ideas 'is year, you'll see." Hagrid commented, with a twinkle in his eye. But no matter how they begged, he wouldn't go any farther into it.  
  
Harry noticed a rather large letter sitting on Hagrid's tabletop, so naturally, being the respectful and sanctimonious child he was, he picked it up and read it.  
  
My Dearest Hagrid,  
  
I miss you so, and though I am far away delivering messages to my family for your headmaster Dumblydorr, your letters still warm me to the bone. I miss you, and promise a visit as soon as things are taken care of.  
  
I thank you for all your encouragement over the summer of ceasing my pretending, and not being ashamed of what I really am: a half-giantess. And with the help of you and Dumblydorr, my heritage has been turned not into a detriment, but an advantage, a help in the fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be- Named.  
  
With all the love in my heart,  
  
Madame Maxime  
  
Harry felt his head burst with excitement. Exactly what HAD happened over the summer? Had Madame Maxim finally admitted to her lineage? Had an envoy to the giant population of, well, giants, been sent out? But, most importantly, had the Headmaster of Beauxbatons and Hagrid begun a romance?!  
  
Quickly Harry folded the letter back up and put it in its envelope, head spinning. "What yeh been up ter, yeh three?" Hagrid asked, and Harry whipped his head up, way up, to see the man.  
  
"Four, Hagrid, we've got a new addition. We'd like you to meet our new Gryffindor, Trinity McGundron-Philips." Hermione introduced, shoving the girl forward. The first time Harry had met the big man personally, he was floored by the sheer mass of him and scared half to death. But Trinny couldn't look calmer, it was as if she were meeting her toddler cousin or something. Harry felt a strange surge of pride and admiration surge through his chest unchecked.  
  
"Nice te meet yeh, Trinity. My, that there's quite a name teh put on yer paper as a kid, huh?" Hagrid remarked about her rather complicated name.  
  
"Oh, um yeah, had it ever since I was born." Trinny replied, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.  
  
"Really, how fascinating. It's not like that's a common occurrence or anything." Ron whispered, with no real intention to be heard by anyone other than Harry. Fortunately for him, Trinny was fidgeting too much to hear his snide remark.  
  
"I 'spect yeh've taken a likin' to Hogwarts so far?" Hagrid asked politely, oblivious to the situation. Either that or pleasantly ignoring it, though Harry suspected the former.  
  
"Yes," said Trinny with a more than a hint of relief. "The school is certainly a very special one. I love it here, I can't imagine leaving at the end of term."  
  
"Trust me, you'll be ready to." Ron answered, rolling his eyes. But at least Harry knew exactly what she was talking about. He wondered what her home life was like, if she was muggle-born, or just ignorant. Trinny didn't seem to know a lot of things about the wizarding world, and that whole bit about her coming just in time for fifth year. something was afoot, and Harry hoped it wasn't something dark....  
  
After a sticky and tough lunch supplied by Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures was about to begin. "This year, bein' fi'f years an' all, I figgered yeh'd be ready to tackle a bit tougher 'ssignments. Now, I've got some papers 'ere fer yer parents to sign, to avoid the incident that happened last term." Hagrid favored a particularly nasty look towards Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, and Harry almost whooped with joy. But he refrained.  
  
When the permission slips were passed out, a sickening jolt went through Harry. There was no way the Dursley's would sign something that would make him happy, criminal godfather or no. He would be forced to sit indoors and do bookwork all term, watching all the other kids handle dragons and hinkypunks or whatever Hagrid had in store for them.  
  
Glancing around, Harry saw the same look of dread mirrored on Trinny's usually delicate but strong face. Tentatively Harry raised his hand and Hagrid called on him. "Who, exactly, is supposed to sign this?" he asked.  
  
"Yer parents, o' course." Hagrid answered as if Harry were thick. Then his eyes lit up as he understood. "Ah, erm, or if yeh wanted teh, a current guardian, godparent, or official could. Dumbledore migh' even do it, if yeh asked him." Harry nodded, and saw Trinny's face relax a bit, though still pale.  
  
What is up with this chick? Harry thought to himself. Is she parentless, like me, or hiding something worse. FAR worse.The possibilities were endless.  
  
Perhaps the worst day imaginable in Harry's schedule began the next morning. Double Potions was, followed by History of Magic with Professor Binns. It was common knowledge that Professor Snape was might as well be Lucifer himself, but it seemed a goal of Professor Binns' to make every student in that class as dead as he was, wielding boredom as his weapon.  
  
After a gigantic breakfast, sort of like a last meal, Harry, Trinny, Hermione, and Ron walked to the dungeons together. The new girl, unlike Harry himself had been his first time down there, looked surprisingly calm and collected as they marched down the cold, damp corridors, their footfalls echoing eerily off the stone walls.  
  
Hermione and Ron chose a table together near the back of the Potions classroom, so Harry and Trinny sat at an adjacent one. "I hope the greasy git's in a bit of a better mood this year." Ron whispered to Harry, seated across the aisle.  
  
"I can assure you, Mr. Weasley, that my distaste for arrogant troublemakers hasn't changed in the least." said a chilling voice from behind the chalkboard. With a growing sense of dread, the four friends saw the previously thought black curtains shuffle as Severus Snape emerged from the shadows.  
  
Though whatever punishment he was about to administer to Ron for his sardonic comment was cut short by the bloodcurdling screams the man began emitting.  
  
"EEEEEYYYYYAAAAA!!!!!!!" the Potions Master screeched in agony, clutching his right wrist. Harry noticed that it was the very wrist that had the Dark Mark tattooed on it, but he didn't say anything about it.  
  
Disturbed murmurs raced through the crowd of students, and Harry noticed tears spring up behind Trinny's dark framed glasses. "Come on, we've got to get some help." Harry whispered, grabbing her hand and hurrying with her out the door. Snape's haunting shouts chased after them, following them down the halls.  
  
Harry sped towards the nearest door, throwing it open and revealing a small staircase. He had no idea where it lead, apart from up, but he took a chance and went up the winding steps. A dazzling light shocked his eyes when a circular window letting sunshine stream down the dark passage emerged above him. Harry was momentarily blinded and disoriented, but suddenly Trinny took charge and struck out down a large and ornate hall. It led to a strange little goblin statue, which Harry thought of as oddly familiar, and Trinny expertly stated "Pumpkin Pasty" before a previously hidden door swung open on their right.  
  
Harry and Trinny stepped out into Headmaster Dumbledore's office.  
  
"Take me to him." was all the gray-haired man said upon their impromptu entrance, throwing on dark maroon robes and grabbing a strange looking staff.  
  
Without a word, Trinny, still grasping Harry's hand tightly, whipped around and retraced their steps along the hallway, winding down the staircase once more, and to the Potions room. Then she stood aside, allowing Dumbledore to enter first.  
  
"Go fetch Madame Pomfrey, Trinity, and tell her to hurry." ordered the Headmaster, before whisking himself inside. Harry gave Trinny's hand a final supporting squeeze before she too was off down the corridor, sapphire robes billowing behind her.  
  
The first thing that Harry noticed upon reentering the classroom was that Professor Snape was no longer screaming. In fact, everything was silent. Unnervingly silent.  
  
The second thing he noticed was that the Potions Master was standing with the old nasty look on his face, looking as if he had eaten something unpleasant for lunch that was just now coming up, his left hand on his hip and his right tucked near his chest.  
  
"Severus, what happened?" Dumbledore requested, although Harry felt that the old man already knew exactly what had happened. He took the cane from his side and unscrewed the silver unicorn's head on it's top, scooping out a cream and smoothing it on Snape's wrist.  
  
Immediately the man let out an audible sigh of relief. "Thank you, Albus." he whispered in gratitude, his face assuming a civil posture for once in his life.  
  
"It's no problem. can you go on?" the old man inquired.  
  
"I'm sure, this is nothing. I have students." Professor Snape answered, waving his good hand at his superior, as if to say "I've been through worse." Dumbledore remained unconvinced.  
  
"Maybe I'll just sit in on your class for today." the Headmaster suggested firmly in a way that showed there was no negotiation about it. The Potions Master nodded severely and addressed the class.  
  
"I can only hope that all the knowledge you couldn't have memorized for the life of you last term has stuck with you enough to somewhat be of assistance this year." Snape barked, his usual beginning-of-year speech surlier than usual.  
  
It was one loooooong class.  
  
Trinny joined Harry at the entrance to the dungeons, looking apprehensive. Harry suddenly realized that she hadn't ever come back to the Potions classroom after Dumbledore told her to go fetch Madame Pomfrey. Very strange. "Is he all right?" the girl whispered in fear to Harry.  
  
"Nastier than ever, if that's what you mean." Harry replied.  
  
"I wonder what that was all about," inquired Ron. "That man hardly shows any feelings at all, and then first off he nearly cries with pain? It couldn't have been any run-of-the-mill prank by Peeves, or allergic reaction or something."  
  
"D-do you think it has something to do with You-Know-Who?" Hermione suggested, confirming what was in everyone else's minds.  
  
"Dunno, Hermione. never can tell with this place." Ron answered softly, cushioning his words when a look of dread appeared on Trinny's face.  
  
Harry was so confused about Trinity. Sometimes she seemed so strong, so fearless. and then the next second she was a terrified child with fragile, doe-like eyes of broken innocence. In those instances he felt like he should do something, like hug her and stroke her hair and whisper that everything's gonna turn out all right. Harry ached so much to do that, but he didn't.  
  
During lunch, Trinny was so distraught she couldn't eat. Harry grabbed a hunk of bread and hid it beneath his robes, and invited Trinny for a tour of the grounds. She looked like she needed some cheering up. The girl obliged excitedly.  
  
"Hogwarts is so amazing. everything has a personality. The paintings, the staircases, the dungeons, it's like one big extended family." Trinny mused as they walked out into the sunlight. Harry had never seen it like that before, but she was right. That was exactly the way he felt, but had never been able to articulate it into words.  
  
"So, you like it here so far?" Harry asked.  
  
"Of course!" Trinny exclaimed, as if there could be no other answer.  
  
"Where do you come from?" Harry thought of adding 'besides heaven' at the end of that, throwing in an old pick-up line he learned from Fred Weasley, but he refrained. He really didn't want to cheapen this conversation.  
  
Trinny thought for a moment, then spoke again. "Small town, just south of London. I lived with my aunt, before she died, then in a foster home. The ministry apologized so much for overlooking me when searching for witches and wizards lost in the miggle world."  
  
Harry decided not to comment on her wrong use of the world 'muggle,' and then prodded her on. "Who did you get it from, your mother or your father?"  
  
"I actually don't know. Mother, I assume, because my aunt sure wasn't a witch and she was my father's sister." Harry remembered his aunt Petunia and cringed. She was far from magical, and yet his mother had been.  
  
"Do you miss it? The muggle world, I mean."  
  
"Sort of. at least there I knew who I was. Now I'm labeled the new kid, and I have to find my nitch all over again."  
  
"Don't worry. I never found my nitch before I came to Hogwarts, and now I'm quite happy where I am."  
  
"Where did you live before?"  
  
"With my Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, and their pig-in-a-wig son Dudley. They were horrible to me, I actually lived in a cupboard under the stairs."  
  
Trinny looked horrified. "WHY?!"  
  
"Because my mother and father were magical, and the Dursley's were just boring old muggles afraid of anything different. I still have to live there during the summers."  
  
"I have no idea where I'll go after this term. Probably back to the foster home, though Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were quite taken aback when a small man in canary yellow robes arrived on our doorstep and took me away. Didn't even fight, my foster parents. They just stood there, hollering out the door for me to be home before midnight."  
  
Harry laid a comforting arm around Trinny's shoulders. "They're probably worried sick now."  
  
"I sent them a letter, telling them my parent's trust said I should go to a boarding school in Sweden. They just sent me a package of clean underwear and a toothbrush in return, no note or anything." Trinny seemed bitter about the whole thing. Harry realized that he couldn't care less about the Dursley's, in fact he didn't want to see their slimy faces ever again.  
  
They walked like that for a while, Harry's arm draped over Trinny's shoulders, Trinny's head resting on Harry's arm. Harry thought he could actually feel her heart calming down as they rounded the lake for the third time.  
  
"Thank you, Harry." Trinny whispered, turning around and hugging him, having to stand on her tip toes to reach him.  
  
"Ngghh-wiffle." was all Harry could get out. She pulled away slightly, looking into Harry's green eyes with those clear blue ones of her own, and he felt an electric charge shoot up from his toes and into his heart.  
  
Then the worst thing imaginable happened. He thought of Jacie Lagne. Harry didn't know why that girl had to pop into his head, he figured it as probably his mind getting revenge on him. He felt like he was cheating on Jacie, though nothing about an exclusive relationship was ever said.  
  
Abruptly Harry pulled away from Trinny and put his hand on the back of his neck awkwardly. He felt his ears redden. "So. erm, best get back to the school, huh? We've got History of Magic next."  
  
Trinny looked confused, but not hurt, and followed Harry to the boring old ghost's room.  
  
All through the boring class, Harry tried to sort out his feelings for the two girls. They were both so similar, outgoing and, well, beautiful. They both caused the same stir in his breast, the same longing to cuddle and swoon and do other previously considered revolting things. But the big differences were that Jacie was a muggle, and that she seemed to hold him at arms length. Like she was hiding something.  
  
Harry knew what he had to do, if he was ever going to be in the same room with Jacie or Trinny again. After History of Magic had ended, Harry marched straight to his dormitory and whipped out a piece of parchment.  
  
"Dear Jacie," he began.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Aww, poow Harry is confused! Who do you think he should go after, huh? Jacie or Trinny? Both seem like their hiding something. and should the fact that Jacie's a muggle really bother Harry that much? All very good questions I would love to be answered in reviews! (actually, I'd be ecstatic with just a review.)  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	5. A Love 'Triangle'

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Five  
  
"A Love 'Triangle'."  
  
A/N: WHEEEE, reviews are fun, reviews are fun, reviews are funfunfunfunfun!!! Thanx bundles to crazy anonymous Kelly reviewer, making a whopping TWO reviews! Yay. Rah. Whoop. Eee.  
  
* * * * *  
  
After two long hours, Harry finally got his letter to Jacie just so. Not exactly breaking up with her, but cool and impersonal enough for her to get the hint that they weren't an item.  
  
Dear Jacie,  
  
School is going fine so far, though the whole work part isn't. I'm settled in alright, and even though I left half my things at the Dursley's I doubt they'll send them to me. Typical, huh?  
  
I hope everything is going well at Stonewall for you.  
  
Harry  
  
He was very careful not to use the words 'love' or 'miss' lest she get the wrong ideas in her head. The letter was boring, platonic, exactly the way he wanted it.  
  
Harry explained everything quite well to Hedwig, telling her to fly to the nearest muggle town and drop the stamped and addressed letter in a postbox. Looking quite indignant at not having the privilege of delivering the letter herself, the snowy owl nipped Harry's ear a little harder than usual and flew out the open window.  
  
It hurt Harry so much to possibly hurt Jacie like that. She was the only one that was ever nice to him while he was still nothing special, just Dudley's younger cousin. Warm memories floated back to him of a tiny little blonde girl in a large purple corduroy dress and neon green windbreaker pants, with giant turquoise socks rolled up over the pants. She had always been so. weird, but in a pleasant way. The only friend Harry ever had.  
  
It wasn't too late now, to call Hedwig back and write another letter to Jacie, about how he loved her theories, and loved her quirky sense of style, and loved her, but he didn't. He just watched the bird fly on, over the horizon, across the sea of trees over the forbidden forest, and finally disappearing.  
  
Why he did it, he didn't know. But Trinny was here, now, and in some small way Harry hoped that letter would help him sort out his feelings for the two girls. Alas, it just made him more confused and angry.  
  
"Good Grief, it's just a freaking letter!" Harry exclaimed, before getting up and walking down into the common room.  
  
"What's eating you?" Trinny greeted Harry when he plopped down dejectedly on a crimson pouf.  
  
"Nothing." he answered. She saw right through it.  
  
"You wanna play a game of wizard's chess, Harry? I don't know how, you could teach me." Trinny offered brightly, hoping it would chase away his sorrows.  
  
Grumbling, though not upset, Harry went upstairs to his dorm and dug around in his trunk for his wizard's chess set. A female voice from behind him made him jump. "So this is what it looks like, huh?"  
  
"Jeez Trinny, you scared the pants off of me!" Harry exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head where it had whacked on the lid of his trunk.  
  
"I wish. No, I just thought I'd accompany you. What, do you not want me to be up here?" replied Trinny.  
  
"Erm, no, it's just that this is, well, the boy's dormitories. Girls aren't supposed to be in here!"  
  
"Oh, is that all? Pshaw, it's no big deal. Besides the dirty knickers on the floor there." Embarrassed, Harry shoved Seamus's plaid boxers under his bunk, as opposed to the center of the floor.  
  
"I found the chess set, here, let's go downstairs." Harry muttered, replacing things back in his trunk one by one.  
  
"No wait, what's this?" Trinny asked, stooping down by Harry's side and picking up the family album Hagrid gave him for Christmas.  
  
"Just my family album, its. sure, you can look at it, go ahead, help yourself." Harry answered as Trinny opened it up without consent.  
  
"Your mother's very beautiful. You got her eyes." Trinny remarked, looking through the pages. Harry tensed up when she stumbled across a picture of Sirius and leaned in to look at it closer.  
  
'Please, please don't let her recognize him as a convict.' Harry prayed.  
  
"Your father is such a goofball. like you." Trinny said, pointing to James Potter in the background making bunny ears on Sirius' head.  
  
Breathing a sigh of relief, Harry relaxed a bit and bent over Trinny's shoulder to look through the pictures with her.  
  
When she reached his baby pictures, she stopped and cooed over how cute he was. "Aww! Look at that mass of unruly hair. You haven't changed a bit." said Trinny, then she looked back up at the much older Harry and ruffled his hair. Parting the curly wisps, she laid eyes on the lightning bolt scar darting across his forehead. Gently Trinny reached out and ran her finger over it, and suddenly a flash of pain raced across Harry's mind.  
  
"OW!" he exclaimed, foreign pictures blinking in his mind. An infant girl, with clear blue eyes, cradled by two loving parents. oh, Voldemort's horrible face, younger than the last time Harry had seen it, imposing menacingly over the parents. their daughter falling, falling. her parent's being wiped away by a flash of emerald light. falling.  
  
A thin voice was calling him through the mist. "Harry, Harry wake up! What's wrong, oh God Harry wake up!" it called.  
  
A golden, shimmering triangle appeared in his mind, spinning, first slowly, then increasing speed. The sound of a crying baby grew louder as the spinning got faster, before fading along with the vision.  
  
Harry was once again back in the dormitory, Trinny shaking him by the shoulders, tears streaming down her face. "Please wake up Harry, don't do this, please, oh no, what have I done!!" she shrieked.  
  
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Harry murmured, and Trinny immediately drew him up into a hug.  
  
"You scared me so bad, what happened?" she whispered softly in his ear.  
  
"I-I don't know. I saw something. A baby, with blue eyes, oh the eyes." Everything was swirling in Harry's head, mixed up in his thoughts. Trinny pulled away and looked at Harry, her own blue eyes leaking down her face. So much like the child's.  
  
"It was you." Harry whispered.  
  
Trinny cupped her hand to her mouth, her breath coming in short gasps.  
  
"You - the infant was you! Your parents, Voldemort killed them." continued Harry. At the mention of the name of the Dark Lord, Trinny fell backwards and stood up clumsily. She stared at him for a second, shaking her head, then raced out the door.  
  
It was so shocking to Harry, it took him a few minutes to process it all. His scar was still throbbing, but it was nothing compared to the confusion in his head. Finally processing things enough to stand, Harry got up and followed Trinny's footsteps out the door.  
  
He turned down the corridor towards the fifth year girls dormitories, and after taking a deep breath, pushed the door open.  
  
Hermione was changing out of her robes, and the poor girl stuck both legs in one leg hole when Harry burst into the room. "HARRY?!" she screamed, pulling the pants up around her waist even though they were on wrong.  
  
Promptly Harry turned around and, red-faced, ran away. He heard the supposed 'kerflump' of Hermione falling onto the floor, but kept going. He took the stairs three at a time, hoping to catch Trinny before she got away.  
  
The scene in the common room was chaotic. Neville Longbottom was lying on the floor, people crowding around him and wondering what had happened, such as Harry.  
  
"Trinity ran by here, knocked me over. I'm okay, somebody go check on her. she was crying." Neville explained. Harry looked over the crowd's heads (it was quite easy, as he was very tall), and saw the open door of the portrait hole swinging on its hinges.  
  
Harry sprang up and, instead of following after her, went back up to his dorm. It was time for the aide of the Marauder's Map. He really hadn't meant to hurt the girl, but it had been so shocking. No doubt about it, that child had to be a young Trinity, it looked so like her. did that mean her parents really were killed by Voldemort? It made sense, her terror at the permission slip, being raised by her aunt, but why had she hidden it? And, while these things were interrogating Harry's brain, another question was added to the list: why had the visions of baby Trinny appeared to Harry? Did it have something to do with his scar, it was twice now that she had hurt it. This was just too weird.  
  
Flinging the items out of his trunk with reckless abandon, Harry finally reached the tattered piece of parchment at the very bottom. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." he stated, the formerly dull paper now being crisscrossed with the snakelike lines forming a perfect map of the school. Little dots were making their way all over Hogwarts, Argus Filch staking out the library, Albus Dumbledore sitting in his office, and Severus Snape brewing God-knows-what in the dungeons. But there was no Trinity McGundron- Philips to be seen. Nowhere on the map was the little labeled dot, not fleeing towards the Forbidden Forest, not pacing in the girl's bathrooms, not raiding the kitchen for comfort food. Trinny had seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.  
  
"Harry?" a female voice inquired. Harry whipped around, both startled and praying that it was Trinny. But it wasn't. Hermione was standing in the doorway. "May I come in?" she asked politely.  
  
"Yeah." Harry consented, wiping the map clean and tossing it on his bunk for later inspection.  
  
"I figured since you burst into the girls dorms without so much as a knock, you wouldn't mind if I came into yours." commented Hermione, sitting on Harry's bunk next to him.  
  
"Sorry bout that, 'Mione. I was looking for Trinny." Harry trailed off. Did he really want to explain everything to Hermione?  
  
"It's fine," she dismissed it. "You and her have really hit it off, huh Harry?"  
  
Harry blushed. "Well, yeah, I guess so, I mean, she's a really nice girl."  
  
"You like her, don't you?"  
  
"Oh, more than that. I'm smitten." Hermione's new casual attitude was making Harry relax around her, to trust her with his crush.  
  
"That's sweet, you and her! Aww. you talk with her much?"  
  
"You could say that. Why?"  
  
"I was just wondering if you knew about her parents, that's all."  
  
Harry immediately went into defense mode. "Why does that concern you?"  
  
"Sorry I asked, Papa Bear. It's just, well. she has nightmares. Parvati and Lavender don't hear her, since they're all the way across the room, but she's my bunkmate and all that tossing and turning wakes me up. A few nights ago, she began muttering 'I never knew them. I never knew them.' and then woke up screaming 'DON'T LEAVE ME, MAMA!' I thought you might know the significance of it."  
  
Harry rolled this new information around, adding it up. She had to've been rather young when they died, did Trinny really remember them? Harry hardly recalled his own, he could relate. "I - I had a vision. About Trinny, and her parents."  
  
"What did you see?" Hermione asked eagerly.  
  
"Just a jumble of pictures, lemme think. I saw Trinny as a baby, cradled by her parents. Then the parents were killed by Vol - I mean, You-Know-Who, and she fell, and just kept falling. I heard her crying, and then, now this is the weird part: a golden triangle appeared and started spinning, faster and faster, until it faded and I woke up."  
  
"That's strange. how long's it been since you last had a vision?"  
  
"Just the TriWizard Tournament, that's all. But you see, it happened only when she touched my scar."  
  
Hermione thought for a moment, then reached out and stroked Harry's scar. "Nope, nothing." Harry answered.  
  
"But then again, I don't have the most exciting past. maybe you and her are connected through You-Know-Who or something."  
  
"Maybe." agreed Harry. Somehow it seemed appealing to be connected in any way with Trinny, despite the pain.  
  
After a long pause, Hermione finally spoke. "Promise you won't tell anyone about my red lace knickers?" she asked lightly.  
  
"Boy, would Ron get a kick out of that!" Harry laughed.  
  
"Yeah he would. don't think he'd ever want to hear anything 'bout me though, most of all my knickers. Unless, of course, it was something embarrassing to me." declared Hermione aloud, somewhat sadly.  
  
"I'm sure Ron would be fascinated by your knickers, Hermione. Positively captivated."  
  
"Really? You're not just saying that?"  
  
"Cross my heart." Harry promised.  
  
Hermione smiled broadly at this, and looked hopeful. "Well, thanks a lot Har, but I've gotta run. I'll let you know if I see Trinny."  
  
"Thanks. Hey, 'Mione, could you try talking to her for me? I think I scared her off."  
  
"Harry, you couldn't scare that girl off even if you tried." Hermione replied knowingly with a wink, then trounced out of the room.  
  
With the girl gone, Harry could get back to consulting the Map. Instead of displaying it again, however, he decided to talk to it, remembering how each of the creators Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs insulted Snape in turn after he spoke to it. "Can the Marauder's Map be fooled?" he asked aloud.  
  
Mr. Moony declares that even powerful magic can't interfere with mischief. The Headmaster is a prime example of that.  
  
Mr. Wormtail says that only a great fool could fool a fool's foolery.  
  
Mr. Padfoot asks why anyone would ever want to?  
  
Mr. Prongs replies that a great wizard could indeed deceive the Marauder's Map, but it takes an even greater wizard to deceive a Marauder himself.  
  
Harry cringed at reading Peter Pettigrew's words, knowing that they were 'spoken' by the same mouth that ratted out his parents. But his father's words spoke most of all. Sure, none of the answers were straight out, but three of his mentors had written them: Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and his own father James Potter.  
  
"I love you, Prongs." Harry whispered, ache and longing filling his heart.  
  
Mr. Moony advises you to take a number.  
  
Mr. Wormtail welcomes you to the club.  
  
Again, Mr. Padfoot asks why anyone would ever want to?  
  
Mr. Prongs measures around his head and realizes that it has inflated!  
  
He knew it wasn't going to get the "I love you too, son" answer that he wanted, but it was nice anyhow hearing words his father would have spoken had he been given the chance.  
  
"Goodnight." Harry muttered to the paper, and tucked it back into his trunk before falling fast asleep.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Hmm. berry, berry interesting. pweese predict whatcha thinks going on here in a REVIEW!! Oooh, ahhh, nice word. say it with me: re-view! What a nice word, how it rolls off the tongue, off the fingers, off the clickity mouse that pushes the tiny button on the bottom of the screen. How delightful indeed!  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	6. The Dark Lord's Warning

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Six  
  
"The Dark Lord's Warning"  
  
A/N: Whoa Nelly! TWO whole reviews from that last chappie-chap- chapter. World record here, people, man dang I can't believe it! Wowie- zowie.  
  
Anonymous Reviewer "E": You don't like Avril Lavigne OR Jacie?? *sniffle* WAAAAAAAAAAActually you're entitled to you're opinion, whether you like my stuffa or not. I respect it, thanks for your review anyways!  
  
Sakura Blossom: Aww. I'm melting with flattery! The total polar opposite of Reviewer "E", for which I'm glad. Hey, get more peeps to read mine! I'm much obliged, thanks for reading.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Harry woke up early the next morning to try and catch Trinity before breakfast. There were quite a bundle of things for them to talk about. So, upon arriving in the Great Hall at the crack of dawn before anyone else, he was both pleasantly surprised and nervous at spying Trinny sitting all alone at the Gryffindor table.  
  
"Hey Trinny." Harry greeted, sitting next to her.  
  
"Good morning Harry," she replied good-naturedly. So far so good, Harry thought, no hysterics, no screaming and punching and fit-throwing. "Look, about last night, I'm sorry for running out on you like that."  
  
Harry waved his hand. "It's fine, I was totally out of line accusing you like that."  
  
"Well. yes you were." Trinny said.  
  
This was not the answer Harry was expecting. "What?"  
  
"You were out of line, trying to predict my past by assuming something horrible like that. I thought you were using the dark arts, Harry, I seriously did. You scared me half to death." murmured Trinny with a note of insincerity in her voice. Her tone was that of a well-rehearsed speech, one not really believed in the heart.  
  
"But - but I saw it, Trinity, I saw you! And your parents, and Vol - I mean You-Know-Who, and. it was a vision. I've had them before, and I've never been wrong." Harry stammered. There was no way she was denying this!  
  
"Well, you're wrong this time Harry Potter. This is a picture of my parents, and I'm sure you will find that they are not the same ones you saw in your so called 'vision.'" Trinny claimed, holding out a framed wizard photograph. There stood a young couple, neither short nor tall, fat nor thin, blonde nor brunette. Basically indescribable, you run-of-the-mill parents.  
  
Harry shook his head in disbelief. "These aren't them. I-I'm sorry Trinny, maybe I was mistaken." he apologized, more to shut her up than really admit he was wrong. There was no doubting her heritage to the couple in his vision, and the people waving nicely in front of him held no resemblance to the girl beside him. She had to be lying.  
  
"Thanks, Harry. Friends again?" Trinny asked, smiling a sympathetic smile and embracing Harry. There was something about her smile, her very demeanor that didn't say 'I forgive you for wrongly accusing me.' but rather asked 'Forgive me for lying to you.'  
  
How could Harry refuse, with her hugging him like that? "Friends again." he agreed.  
  
(^*^)  
  
Harry and Trinny became even closer after that incident. Nothing more of her past was ever brought up again, and by the next Care of Magical Creatures class both pals turned in permission slips signed by Headmaster Dumbledore. Harry noticed to his immense pleasure that Malfoy handed in his father's John Hancock quite begrudgingly, eying Hagrid warily as if he were signing away his soul.  
  
"Yeh'll be fine, the lot of yeh." the half-giant stated gruffly, grabbing the parchment from Draco's hands and stuffing it in the growing stack.  
  
That day was actually a very exciting one, quite the improvement from last term. They took notes on the different species of grindylow from around the world, and the class was separated into different groups. At each station was a different acclimated tank with a different breed caged inside it, and on its own each group was supposed to observe the behavioral differences.  
  
It turned out that Arctic grindylows enjoyed colder water to warmer (duh), and ate kelp and seaweed and were rarely carnivorous, besides the females in mating season. And a grindylow from the Mediterranean had a taste for spicy Italian foods, and promptly made squealing noises if it was placed in salt water. This class offered a learning experience, for a change.  
  
At the end of the hour, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Trinny went up to congratulate their professor. "Nice job, Hagrid, that was a great class!" said Ron emphatically.  
  
"Yeah, where'd you get that idea?" Hermione inquired.  
  
"This 'ere dusty ol' hatrack. Fin'ly let meh creative instinct take over." Hagrid answered, beaming.  
  
"Who would'a thought you'd have such natural teaching skills?" Harry asked, slapping his friend on the overly large shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, nice one Hagrid." added Trinny.  
  
"Oh, by the way 'Arry, I went inter Hogsmede and grabbed the muggle post yeh've been askin me ter." Hagrid remarked in passing, handing a stamped and addressed envelope to Harry.  
  
"Is that a REAL muggle letter?" Ron asked in amazement.  
  
"Just a little bit there, Ron." Harry replied sarcastically.  
  
"Hey, why's it addressed to St. Byron's School for Boys, Sweden?" asked Hermione, noticing the phony address.  
  
"Erm, no reason." Harry evaded. Though unsuccessfully.  
  
"Who's it from, who's it from?" Ron chanted.  
  
"Nobody!" cried Harry, fending off greedy hands.  
  
"It's from your GIRLfriend, isn't it?" guessed Ron.  
  
"Shh!" insisted Harry.  
  
"Harry's got a girlfriend, Harry's got a girlfriend!" sang Ron.  
  
The embarrassed boy hit him over the head. Ron shut up with a tiny swear. Risking risked a quick glance at Trinny to see of she noticed, praying once again for a loss of hearing, to Harry's dismay he noted that she was bright red. Her fists were clasped into tight balls, and her lips were pursed.  
  
"She's NOT my girlfriend." Harry muttered.  
  
"Ah, leave 'im alone, y'all." Hagrid ordered, and with that Ron finally closed his pie hole.  
  
Harry wandered off to the castle lagging behind the others, and tore open Jacie's answer hurriedly. It had been about a week since he'd sent his uber-platonic letter.  
  
My Dear Lightning-Bearer:  
  
Things are boring, as usual, here in Stonewall. I have developed a new theory on school, and it goes something like this:  
  
"Of all the things we learn in school, none of them are taught by a teacher. People skills, sharing, flirting, negotiation. in fact, if you think about it, after learning how to read and write, children would be better off just going to a party for the further levels of education."  
  
Taa-daa! How does it stack up? I thought you might be starving for culture out there in Sweden all alone, surrounded by boys day in and day out. I know I would be, at least.  
  
I miss you every day, but something tells me that we're not that far apart. Mixed up intuition, I guess. Go figure. I hope to see you during winter break, it's been too long!  
  
With love, The amazing Jacie Lagne  
  
Harry's heart beat faster as he read her words. He missed that girl a lot! Her hair, her theories, her Herman. and then he caught himself as Trinny popped into his head. He liked both of them so much it hurt, and it hurt ten times worse to know that he was being 'unfaithful' in a small way. His letter was supposed to give off a 'just friends' vibe, and instead he gets "With love" in reply. Harry was quite frustrated.  
  
"What's wrong, Mr. Pouty Pants?" Trinny asked in her oddball way.  
  
"Nothing." mumbled Harry angrily, stomping off ahead of her at a fast pace.  
  
Trinny quickened her pace and caught up with him. "Hey now, I know that face. The ladies man is having some lady-problems, eh? Am I right?"  
  
Harry shook his head. "No, its. nothing, just plain nothing, I swear." He almost was tempted to tell Trinny all about Jacie and his struggle to just choose one of them already, but caught himself in time. Imagine the disaster that would ensue!  
  
Trinny looked hurt that she wasn't telling him the truth, and hugged his arm comfortingly. "Well, I hope that 'nothing' gets better soon, whatever it is." she cooed.  
  
Harry smiled and squeezed her shoulder, happy at least that she was willing to be there for him anyway.  
  
(^*^)  
  
So far that year, there had been nothing mentioned of the battle against Voldemort. Since Harry was the only student that knew the magnitude to which the Dark Lord had risen again, the rest of the school just blew it off. The true enormity of the tragedy wasn't conceived. or was refused to be conceived.  
  
To the trained eye, signs of action were being taken all over. Harry noticed that the teachers stood outside their classrooms during passing period, monitoring the passers-by. Also, very formal looking owls passed by the flock in and out of Headmaster Dumbledore's quarters, sometimes three or four at a time. Arthur Weasley was an informant in the Ministry sending Dumbledore information, deceiving Cornelius Fudge, the figurehead Minister of Magic, into thinking he was actually making any decisions at all. When, in fact, Dumbledore was the real brains behind the operation. Well, at least they were in capable hands.  
  
Anyways, the outside world was none the wiser about Voldemort's uprising. That is, until one fateful evening in late September.  
  
Harry had been lying in bed since five o'clock that night, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had retired with a mug of warm milk, hoping the comforting beverage would settle his nerves. Something was going to happen, he could feel it. Harry's nerves had been on edge all day. but he didn't know why. As the night progressed, the feeling just got worse until, without warning, at precisely 7:59 it stopped. It was like the eye of the hurricane, one final gulp of air before the waves pressed you below the churning water once more. Exactly one minute later, Harry's head exploded with pain.  
  
Flashes of incomprehensible pictures flooded his mind. Families, wives, mothers, daughters, sons, parents. all being ripped away. Harry knew none of these mysterious strangers, and yet felt so intimate with them at the same time. His legs twitched, he felt clumsy footsteps and then falling, falling, even though he was lying on his bed. Rough cobblestone rushed up to meet him, paved roads, gravel drives, he was everyone and he was no one, all at once. He stared through the eyes of strangers, seeing their last fleeting moments of life, their last taste of freedom before death shackled their hearts and minds. Hooded figures loomed over Harry, the vision taking on a greenish swirl, and then frozen images of the last thing ever conceived before blackness conquered.  
  
It was all over in a matter of seconds.  
  
Harry fell asleep then, if you could call it that. Unconscious was more like it. Dreams of those far away lives haunted him the rest of the night.  
  
The first time anybody heard a hint of the news was the following drizzly Thursday morning, when students and teachers alike were reading the Daily Prophet over breakfast. Ron and George were discussing the oncoming quidditch season when Hermione suddenly gasped and her cereal spoon clattered to the floor.  
  
"Twenty-three muggles dead." she declared solemnly, and anybody within earshot immediately fell silent. Then, she began reading aloud, voices all around the Great Hall quieting as the word spread throughout the room.  
  
"Yesterday evening, promptly when the bell tolled eight o'clock, unsuspecting muggles from all over the world dropped dead in a display of some sick synchronized scheme. Immediately afterwards, shots of the infamous Dark Mark went up all over, marking the spots where these innocents fell. Nobody knows the culprit, nobody knows the reason, and nobody knows what will ensue, but panic and foreboding have gripped the very hearts of magical and muggle peoples everywhere.  
  
"Kashir Mennikir from the Ministry of Arabia remarked, 'I have never seen such a display of warning in my life. Something is going to happen, and it is happening soon.' Well, whatever is going on, all we can do is sit here and wait, whether for death or a savior no one knows."  
  
Hermione finished the grim article to find a complete stupefied silence around her. Even the teachers were shocked, and Professor Sprout was drying her eyes with the hem of her robes. This was horrible.  
  
Harry, of course, was the most terrified of all. He lay in bed, having been long awake but too haunted to open his eyes. His roommates had left him alone in bed that morning, realizing how painfully ill the poor boy was.  
  
Thoughts of fear invaded his mind. Voldemort was back. and Harry had been forced to witness every face of the muggle that was killed, every final thought, every last spasming muscle and, in the end, every blank and fathomless stare. He could already hear the article that Hermione was dictating to the Great Hall many floors below him.  
  
When Harry didn't show up for morning classes, Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, Professor McGonagall was worried.  
  
"Where's Harry?" she inquired breathlessly.  
  
"Sick, Professor." Dean Thomas answered.  
  
"We left him in our dormitory this morning, he looked terrible." supplied Ron. At once the old witches' face was overtaken with concern and she quickly left the room, without so much as an explanation to the class. Hermione heard her muttering, "The poor boy, his connection. I'd forgotten."  
  
Minerva McGonagall burst into the fifth year boys dormitories not two minutes later, huffing and puffing but paying no heed to her own discomfort. Of course he was sick, any time The Dark Lord cursed or killed, Harry felt and experienced it. "Harry. Harry, are you alright dear?" she whispered softly, peering at the messy black haired boy buried under the covers. She took note that his hair was plastered to his head in places from sweat.  
  
"Up you get," she urged, and with the aide of a few well-chosen spells, the old woman took Harry to the hospital wing.  
  
"He's in shock." Madame Pomfrey declared upon Harry's arrival, as the boy lay unmoving upon the hospital bed. He hadn't even objected when the nurse took his temperature or pressed the cold metal stethoscope against his chest to find a quick, scared pulse.  
  
"I can only imagine the things he's witnessed about last night." Professor McGonagall uttered, shaking her head.  
  
"I'll give him a potion for dreamless sleep, it should relax and stabilize him a bit too, and you go fetch the Headmaster. I know Albus'll want to talk things over with the boy when he awakens." the trained nurse recommended.  
  
"But Poppy, Dumbledore's out. Went off first thing this morning, after hearing about the deaths and all. Up at the Ministry, probably, taking care of the hailstorm of owls they're getting up there."  
  
The old nurse's face paled. "Who's in charge, then?"  
  
Minerva looked puzzled, as if she hadn't given this problem much thought. "I suppose I am, then. Oh, God help us all."  
  
(^*^)  
  
Chaos had broken out by lunch, students (namely first years) were terrified at the realization of Voldemort's return had struck them. And then rumors that Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived was gone, had disappeared, began circulating. By the end of afternoon classes, the rumor had turned into an elaborate tale of him being captured, wrestled out of his room, and then later killed at the hands of Death Eaters. The Slytherins, namely, fed these rumors with a hopefulness that they might come true.  
  
In real life, Harry Potter was sitting peacefully in the Hospital Wing, dreaming of nothing interesting in particular and being fed pureed greens by Madame Pomfrey, a thing he would've been repulsed by had he been conscious.  
  
Minerva McGonagall was holed up in the Headmaster's office, filling out reports and paperwork about broken toilets, an expensive china set that Peeves had broken in a tantrum, and a mad ferret that was loose in the school somewhere. She had had no idea that being head of a school was so hard, and wondered what Albus' secret was to how he handled it all.  
  
When the woman went down to the Great Hall for a well-needed dinner break, she got none. Instead she was bombarded by angry letters from parents demanding the assurance of their precious children's safety, and the wails and whinings of scared students from all around her. When Professor Flitwick politely asked for her to pass the potatoes, she snapped and yelled, "WHY CAN'T ANYONE HELP THEMSELVES AROUND THIS BLOODY CASTLE?!?!" to which the poor wizard shrank down into his seat. Professor Sprout patted him on the shoulder comfortingly and grabbed the potatoes herself, handing them to the tiny, startled man.  
  
It was at this bad of a time that Trinity McGundron-Philips decided it would be suitable to go up and ask the substitute headmaster exactly what had become of her missing friend.  
  
"Professor McGonagall?" Trinny asked politely.  
  
"What do YOU want?" the woman snapped unintentionally.  
  
"I was just wondering, ma'am, where Harry is."  
  
Minerva's face softened a bit at the mention of the poor boy, for whom she had a bit of a soft spot. "He's in the hospital wing, dear. You know how - erm, well, what he goes through during an attack of The Dark Lord."  
  
Trinny's eyes fell and she bit her lip. She had heard some of his horror stories during one of their long conversations. "I had totally forgotten, of course. may I go visit him?"  
  
"He's dead asleep, and won't be up until tomorrow. You can if you really want to, though." Professor McGonagall answered, not really expecting the girl to spend all night by Harry's side in the hospital wing, holding his hand and whispering supporting and comforting things to him throughout the night.  
  
But that is exactly what Trinity did.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Aww, Trinny is there for Harry in his time of need. And what a time of need. Voldemort's baaa-aaack, and more pissed off than ever. Tune in next Saturday for another installment of (da da dummm) HARRY POTTER AND THE LOCKET OF TRINITY!!!!!!  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com  
  
P.S. Hey, I have to ask y'all a quick question about the first Harry Potter book: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione went after the Sorcerer's Stone, why were the chess board and Snape's logic puzzle vials unused when they got there? How did Quirrell get through the chess board w/o messing it up, and pass through the fire thingy w/o using up the elixir? I was confused by this.. of course, it's the fiftieth time I've read the book and I just caught it now, so yah, jus wondering. Talk to y'all later, taa-taa, and thanks for the input I'll hopefully get!! 


	7. The Centaur's Prediction

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Seven  
  
"The Centaur's Prediction"  
  
A/N: Ooo, many reviews and opinions on what should become of Harry and Trinny vs. what should become of Harry and Jacie. OH WAIT, whoops, I got NO reviews! Marvelous! Grand! Positively extraordinary!!!!!!!  
  
But I did get a lot of feedback on my summary, NOT on the story itself. hmm. anywho, yah, apparently bundles of y'all out there in reader land don't like Avril Lavigne. Well, I do, but for the sake of getting readers I took her out of the summary. For those of you coming along a bit out of date, I compared Jacie's character to Avril, and a bunch of you exploded. Ka. Boom. Well, I hope you're happy. I will be if it improves my reviewless state!!  
  
* * * * *  
  
Harry awoke in the middle of the night, his scar throbbing dully, his hand warm and enveloped in something, though what it was he didn't know. Gently he opened his eyes and saw a fuzzy silhouette of Trinity sitting by his bed, both her hands clasped around his. The sight made his heart leap, and he smiled.  
  
Then he looked around him, and realized that he was in the hospital wing. But why? Sleep had clouded his memory of the previous night's events. he began to pick out dreaming from reality, and discovered to his dismay that Voldemort's attack was no dream, no terrifying nightmare to haunt him during the for mere hours while he slept. Voldemort was also haunting the rest of humanity, as the shock and killings were dispersed throughout the world. Harry didn't feel so happy anymore.  
  
"Harry? You awake?" Trinny whispered quietly, as to not alert him if he wasn't.  
  
"Uh-huh. Why am I in the infirmary?" he asked, trying to sit up and sinking back down into the pillow a sharp pain in his head pushed him downwards.  
  
"You were out cold, Harry," Trinny stated matter-of-fact. "You know, because of. You-Know-Who."  
  
Harry grimaced. "I remember." he stated solemnly.  
  
Trinny gave him a supporting look, as if to say she was sorry even though she hadn't done anything and there was nothing she could do. She had been softly stroking his hand this whole time, and the effect made Harry drowsy. In no time at all, the comforting light touch of Trinny's hand combined with his extreme exhaustion was more than he could bear and Harry was off to sleep once more.  
  
A few hours later Harry woke again, this time the newborn sun bringing enough light into the room so he could properly see everything. There wasn't much to look at besides the small ragged hole in his blanket. However, he studied the dark circles under Trinny's eyes, whether induced by insomnia or stress he didn't know. The poor girl was fast asleep, leaning back in the stiff wicker chair and snoring slightly. Harry would have grinned if it wouldn't have hurt so bad.  
  
"Ah, good morning Mr. Potter. You slept quite soundly through the night." Madame Pomfrey said as she bustled into the room with fresh bedding and utensils. She shot a disapproving look in the way of Trinity, and Harry could only imagine the battles the old woman probably went through the previous night trying to shoo away the stubborn girl. Harry was glad Trinny had won in the end, though.  
  
"I'm a little hungry." Harry croaked, a severe case of sleepers mouth from the full twenty-four hours he spent in bed.  
  
The nurse was one step ahead of him there, though, and she whipped out from behind her a tray full of breakfast goodies that made Harry's stomach tremble. Porridge, muffins of all fruits, toast, sausages, pancakes and waffles awaited him, and he dug in, setting aside a muffin and a couple sausages for Trinny. He remembered they were her favorite.  
  
Within a couple of minutes, the tantalizing smells roused the sleeping girl with a yawn. "Hey Harry." she greeted brightly first off. Then she laid eyes on the food, and Harry saw her mouth begin to salivate involuntarily.  
  
He pushed her plate towards her and she accepted it gratefully, gulping everything down in a hurry. The tiny girl also put away half of Harry's waffles, three more muffins, twelve sausages, and three glasses of pumpkin juice. Where does it all go, Harry wondered to himself comically.  
  
"The school's going crazy, at first McGonagall tried to pretend nothing was out of the ordinary and made classes resume like normal. But everyone was too freaked, the teachers were ruffled and couldn't teach and the student's wouldn't let them. More'n half the kids were flown out yesterday, officially withdrawn by their parents. You-Know-Who's got everybody scared, all right. And nobody knows what to expect." Trinny commented in between bites, bringing Harry up to speed on the current events.  
  
"Where's Dumbledore?" Harry asked after a moment of thought. He suspected he was off on important Ministry business, but Harry desperately wanted the old man safe and sound at Hogwarts, protecting his school from any danger that may come. The boy regarded the Headmaster as a sort of father figure, and knew that he could trust in him the haunting scenes from the vision, the scared thoughts of capture or torture. the need to go out and hunt The Dark Lord down himself.  
  
"Away. At the ministry, I suspect. He left McGonagall in charge, and the old witch has been run ragged in the last day. This morning she finally gave in and declared a 'holiday in mourning,' basically we're off the hook until next week."  
  
This was welcome news to Harry. All he wanted to do right now was curl up in the fetal position and convince himself that it was all going to be okay; to file those horrifying truths and images away into a lockbox and never open it again. This was an experience Harry was accustomed to, after beatings from Uncle Vernon, after being told repeated times by Dudley and his gang that he was a worthless piece of trash. you just have to grit your teeth and pretend it's not there, moving on and hoping for the best. Harry was an expert at the process by now, shoveling those twenty-three muggle lives into the furnace along with Cedric Diggory and his mum and dad.  
  
"Oh." Harry stated outwardly.  
  
(^*^)  
  
Harry spent most of the week off in the hospital wing. There was nothing wrong with him, he very well knew that, but it offered much more comfort than the common room or dormitory would. Most of the talk around campus consisted of denying the truth, trivial things like the weather and switching spells, or the blatant truth, whispering about previous terrors and possible culprits.  
  
Hermione and Ron came to visit Harry Wednesday afternoon, their concern apparent along with their unwillingness to express it. Hermione hated talking about quidditch, and yet it consumed her every nervous word that day. Talk of Angelina's new broom wax, and how it enhanced speed and reduced drag. basically a rambling of filler leading up to what they all really wanted, and needed, to talk about.  
  
It actually took nothing to get the necessary topic started. Harry sneezed, claimed that this action made his head hurt, and then Hermione shut up about the hazards of wooden bludger bats and switched gears. "What was it like?" she whispered, in a completely different tone than the one she'd been using so far. It was hushed, revered, and respectful.  
  
"Torture," Harry began, then took a breath prepared himself to relay the whole story. After an encouraging squeeze from Trinny's hand, Harry began. "Each of those people that died, I was in their head. I was them as it happened, I physically died twenty-three times. I experienced twenty- three kinds of loss, daughters, wives, brothers, and lives I'd never even known before this. I also saw twenty-three hooded figures standing above me as I fell, twenty-three murderers that casually sauntered away as I lay there, helpless, motionless. lifeless."  
  
"Harry, I'm so sorry." Ron rasped, his freckles reduced to dull grey spots among his face, which was as white as a sheet.  
  
"It's amazing you can even talk about it." Hermione complemented.  
  
"It helps, believe me. Thanks for listening." Harry replied.  
  
"We're always here for you, Harry." said Ron.  
  
"Always ready to listen, whatever you want to say." Trinny added warmly. Harry was glad there were people there for him, to catch him if he failed or support him as he went off to attack windmills or monsters, whatever comes.  
  
(^*^)  
  
On Sunday evening during supper, Substitute-Headmaster McGonagall stood up at the staff table and declared, her voice magically booming louder than she could ever shout, that classes would resume the next day. Students didn't gripe and groan as much as you would have thought, though, because it was about time to get some routine in their lives again. With all this free time, the only thing to do was think. Think about the events, the vulnerability, trying to make sense of the insensible. And all that thinking made Harry's head hurt.  
  
Classes were subdued the following cold morning, and the Gryffindors marched like soldiers across the frosty grounds to Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid's lessons had been delightful lately, and the class had just finished their unit on Centaurs. As a special treat, Hagrid had agreed that on the next lesson, he'd invite some of the Centaurs from the forest to chat with the students. Of course, this promise was made before any of the tragic events the previous week.  
  
A man of his word though, Hagrid had gathered up the most agreeable Centaurs for that morning's lesson. They were mostly young, strong looking males, but one lone female stood apart from the group. Harry had never seen a female centaur before, and she was beautiful, in a wild sort of way. Her reddish-chestnut coat set her bluebell-colored eyes ablaze, and her fiery red hair seemed to float on the breeze like a scent, not something solid. She had a long leather bodice over her human portion, offset with green pleasant-smelling leaves woven in the straps somehow. She gave off a very queenly/snobbish air.  
  
"I'd like yeh to meet the Centaurs of the Forbidden' Forest. Firenze, Thame, Bascall, Kient, Shabash, and the lone girl of the group, Ben'mah." Hagrid introduced. Harry recognized Firenze from his first year, and noticed he looked a bit mature and more plump now.  
  
After being separated into groups, Harry, Neville, Trinny, Pansy Parkinson, and Dean Thomas approached their assigned centaur, Ben'mah. Harry was intimidated by this, not only by Pansy's impressive form bustling about next to him but the regal centaur before him. Centaurs gave Harry the creeps. He recalled Firenze mentioning something about his life being 'foretold in the stars.' Had that something come true yet, or been averted?  
  
"H-hello, Ben'mah, is it?" Trinny asked politely. The Centaur just nodded briskly.  
  
"I've never seen a female centaur before." Harry said, more to make small talk than anything else.  
  
Ben'mah turned her fiery head on him. "You're the Potter boy, aren't you?" she asked, ignoring his question.  
  
Harry looked at the ground. "Uh, yeah -"  
  
"The universe is much concerned with you." she stated knowingly. Harry saw Pansy groan, but everyone else seemed intrigued.  
  
"How so?" asked Harry quietly. He didn't want another prediction of his death, he had Professor Trelawney for that.  
  
"Many things are told - predicted, possible, but have not yet passed." Ben'mah stated, captivating her audience. There was a long pause before they realized this was the end of her supplied information.  
  
"Like what?" Neville prompted foolishly.  
  
The Centaur turned her head on him sharply, and Harry braced himself to call for assistance in prying a raging centaur off his friend. But suddenly the bluebell-eyes softened. "Love shall come. freed from the chain, love shall abound once again," she stated softly, closing her eyes eerily. "Love shall save us all."  
  
Nobody moved for a full minute. Then Pansy began to fidget with her toes, making a rustling sound. "Whatcha DO in the forest, anyways?" the girl asked rudely.  
  
Ben'mah tossed her head in agitation, but answered nonetheless. Harry assumed Hagrid instructed the centaurs to play nice.  
  
"Frolic, eat berries, sacrifice a plump human or two." she replied sarcastically. Harry was shocked, he'd never seen a centaur with a sense of humor before, let alone voluntary sarcasm! Females must be different, he thought, and then laughed to himself. How true that was.  
  
Pansy looked terrified and backed away a couple of paces, but the rest of the group, including Neville, gathered in closer.  
  
"Are you some sort of leader or something?" Dean asked like a child.  
  
Ben'mah looked flattered. "The leader of the Centaur's is the sky. We do not believe in entrusting one individual to provide our lives with direction, each of us is our own ruler."  
  
"That's a refreshing view to take. we've got incompetent Ministers running everything." Trinny commented, and Harry snorted, stifling back a bout of laughter.  
  
"The incompetent are not always so," Ben'mah stated, staring Trinity in the eyes. The girl was frozen with awe. "Merely insufficient liars. Their choices may be prompted by the one whom they truly serve."  
  
The Centaur's words baffled her captive audience, just flying right over their heads. Harry memorized her speech though, to try and work out later.  
  
"Professor McGonagall says fortune-telling is a VERY imprecise branch of magic." Pansy interjected boorishly. Trinny hit her over the head.  
  
Ben'mah laughed, a light, trickling sound like that of a waterfall. "You certainly are a special one, Child of the Trinity."  
  
Harry cocked his head. Had he heard her right? Had the Centaur just called his friend 'Child of the Trinity?' Glancing over at Trinny questioningly, Harry saw her eyes wide with dread.  
  
Ben'mah continued. "Love is fierce, Child. Love shall bind you, and love shall set you free. Trust it, and do not shy away."  
  
Trinny made a few odd mouth noises, resembling that of a mouse that had been trodden on.  
  
"Love shall save us all." the Centaur repeated.  
  
Harry committed this speech to memory also. 'Love shall save us all.' it sounded like a bunch of psychic mumbo-jumbo, and yet it got under his skin, convincing his every nerve of its sincerity.  
  
And, in the back of his mind, Harry prayed that it would be his love that would set Trinity free.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Greetings, all. Well, this is a very short chapter, but you'll get over it. I'm experiencing some writers block. It's the first real cold week of winter (it's only mid October, that's Oklahoma for ya), and I've spent most of my time inside reading Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries. I'm a 'whodunit' addict. WHEEEEEEEEE!  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com (don't forget to write!!) 


	8. Abandon

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Eight  
  
"TITLE"  
  
A/N: Whoopee, I guess that deleted-Avril-Lavigne thingy from my summary did the trick, hoo-dee-hoo! Having plus one review is fun, muchas gracias to:  
  
DarkMoonDragon: Yay-rah for you! Thanks a lot for my first NON-AVRIL HATER review! And also thanks for the email, made my insides go squishy. In a good way. ;)  
  
Hey all, for future reference, this means thoughts.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Harry was apparently the only one bothered by Ben'mah's predictions, besides Trinny, who tried to pass it off as a laugh. "Wow, intense, huh?" Harry remarked to his group as they walked back to the castle.  
  
Pansy snorted, but withheld her cut down because of a murderous glare from Trinny. "Yeah, funny her obsession with love though, huh?" Trinny added. "Let's just hope that Hugh Grant's is the love that I'll get."  
  
Harry couldn't help but feel insulted by her remark. He regarded the whole experience as incredibly somber, and if it hadn't been for the previous look of shock on Trinny's face he would have thought it hadn't gotten to her either.  
  
When they finally got to the common room, Harry cornered Trinny and asked her about her reaction to the Centaur.  
  
"Yeah, I know, that Ben'mah is certainly a bit off her rocker, huh?" she replied, dodging his inquiry.  
  
Harry pressed her. "Trinny, I saw the look on your face when she called you 'Child of the Trinity.' Do you know what that was about?"  
  
"It's my name." she defended, trailing off and not looking Harry in the face.  
  
There was something about her behavior that made Harry think she was hiding something. "Do you know something you're not telling me?" he asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"Why are you doing this, is it so horrible you can't even confide in me?"  
  
"You're blowing this way out of proportion here, Harry. Just let it go, please, just let it go."  
  
"Okay, maybe I am just blowing this out of proportion, but I can't help but feel like you're hiding something. We never talk about you, Trinity, it's always me. I don't even know your middle name!"  
  
"Amelia."  
  
"That's not the point, Trinny, and you know it. Tell me the truth, and for once maybe I'll believe you. Look at me and tell me you have no idea what 'Child of the Trinity' means."  
  
Trinny sighed and rose her head to meet his eyes. "I have no idea what 'Child of the Trinity' means." she stated.  
  
This infuriated Harry, because he could see it in her face that she wasn't telling the truth, and he could also see that it was tearing her apart inside to do so. What was her problem, what could this be? His anger must have shown in his face, because Trinny turned around and began to walk away, shaking her head.  
  
"No Trinny, wait!" Harry said, not wanting it to end like this. He reached out to grab her arm and barely got a hold of her robes. They slipped down a bit, exposing her T-shirt underneath it. The girl whipped around, and in the process that heavy black locket became dislodged from beneath her shirt.  
  
Harry screamed with pain.  
  
His scar felt like it was burning a hole straight through his skull, blinding him, making him stumble and fall. A loud screaming echoed in Harry's head, but it wasn't the familiar haunting sound of his parent's last moments. It sounded different, deeper. unreal. It was the sound of something dying.  
  
As quick as it had begun though, it ceased. The pain and screaming ended abruptly and Harry was once again back in the common room, pressed against a corner with Trinny nowhere in sight.  
  
What in the world had just happened?  
  
(^*^)  
  
Harry tried once again to consult the Marauder's Map, but obviously the thing didn't seem to believe in Trinity McGundron-Philips. He investigated every other dot, thinking maybe she had another name or something, but no dice. Harry knew the face of each name's owner, and none of them resembled the missing girl. Well, the whole predicament with the map was confusing enough, but it was the visions and pain in his scar that held most of Harry's attention.  
  
So far that year, the little lightning-bolt scar had had two episodes of pain, and both times had occurred when that black locket of Trinny's had become exposed. What WAS that thing? The first time Harry had just passed it off as a simple piece of jewelry, but this was too odd to ignore. There was something about that necklace that got to him.  
  
The primary suspicion in Harry's mind was that Dark Magic was involved. After all, that was the only thing that had affected his scar before. But could a fifteen year old girl be capable of the Dark Arts?  
  
You hardly know anything about the girl. A voice in Harry's head prompted.  
  
I know, he conceded. But Trinny would never.  
  
Put your feelings aside, Harry. You like her, want to smooch her, etc, etc, but we're not discussing her dowry. She's hiding something, and you know it.  
  
She's probably just retaining water. That clears up in what, a month?  
  
UGH, gross out! And I doubt that kind of thing would affect your scar, it's a different kind of evil altogether. Face the beans, boy, you've got to play it safe around her.  
  
I play it safe around everyone! I thought, for once, that I could just be normal around someone. Act like crap when I feel like crap, drop all pretensions. I thought I found that person in Jacie. but she's a muggle.  
  
Yah, imagine her confusion if you'd tell her about Voldemort and switching spells. She'd go nuckin futz.  
  
I need someone to talk to about what happened at the Tournament. do you know I still haven't told that story to anyone but Dumbledore?  
  
Of course I know, I AM you.  
  
.. I knew that.  
  
But those insecurities could just be feeding Trinny's plan. You just can't trust people, especially these days, so get a diary for that sort of thing and be done with it.  
  
I most certainly will NOT!  
  
Ooh, sorry, a JOURNAL then.  
  
That's not what I mean! I'll tell what I want to who I want, and you can't tell me what to do!  
  
... who else would, then?  
  
I WILL!  
  
That's me too.  
  
You know what I mean. Now just can it, I'm tired of your lip. Furiously, Harry clamped his hands over his ears.  
  
.. I'm INSIDE your head, imbecile.  
  
AAARGH!!  
  
(^*^)  
  
In the end, Harry won the argument. He agreed with his self that something was definitely up with Trinny, whether good or bad he couldn't tell. But until he figured that out, it was best to assume the worst and brace himself for Voldemort to leap out of her chest at any moment.  
  
Harry staked out the common room for three hours straight, busying himself by watching Ron's forgotten chess pieces, but still Trinny didn't show. Finally, after watching the Knight try and seduce the Queen by pulling her onto his rearing stallion, Harry admitted defeat and headed up to the dormitory.  
  
The next morning he roused himself early and resumed his post by the fireplace, finding the Knight's horse abandoned with it's rider and the Queen nowhere in sight. Harry figured they were somewhere inside the Castle enjoying a nice post-copulation cigarette. He didn't envy the poor guy though, who would have to suffer the King's wrath when he woke up to find his royal aficionada missing.  
  
Traipsing down to the great hall, Harry saw Trinny waiting on the stairs for him. He spotted dark circles under her eyes and she was wringing her hands nervously. He didn't suspect she had slept a wink.  
  
"Hey Harry!" she called excitedly upon spying him, motioning him closer.  
  
"About last night," she began.  
  
Harry held up his hand to stop her. "It's alright. I'm really confused, but if you don't want to talk about it I'd completely understand."  
  
"I never meant to hurt you." Trinny assured him.  
  
"I know. And I never meant to drive you away." Harry agreed. He desperately wanted to ask, no, demand her to tell him what was going on, but it wouldn't get him anywhere. She was a headstrong girl, and pressing her would only make her dig her heels in harder. He'd learned that the hard way from past experiences.  
  
"Look, I don't know what's happening. It scares me to death, but I can't tell you what's going on. I can't, I can't." the girl accented the last few words, and Harry thought she was trying to convey a completely different message to him. Something held her back, something wouldn't let her tell him the truth.  
  
"Okay." Harry relented after a moment.  
  
"Don't worry about it, I'm promise its nothing," Trinny reassured. "Not meant for you, anyway, that's for sure." she added aside to herself, and Harry barely caught those last words.  
  
Well, his thirst for the truth wasn't quenched fully, but it would have to do for now. In a way, Trinny hadn't told him that she didn't KNOW what was going on, she just couldn't tell him. He felt like lying down on the floor, flailing his limbs about wildly, kicking and screaming for her to tell him the truth. Or maybe he'd pull the I'm-holding-my-breath-until-I- get-what-I-want thing. He'd seen Dudley do it numerous times, and it had always worked then. But then again, Aunt Petunia was a lot different from Trinny.  
  
Thank God.  
  
So, whatever was bothering both Trinity and Harry's scar was to remain a secret. well, for now anyways.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Hehe, kinda got a little loopy that chapter and really whipped out the humor. I've got a severe case of loneliness here, ya gotta cut me a break!! Well, like a prom dress, I'm off! See y'all later, and thanks for the reviews I KNOW are coming! (maybe.??)  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	9. Halloween H20

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Nine  
  
"Halloween H2O"  
  
A/N: Time sure flies when you're, erm. writing a Harry Potter story?? Well, I'm quite pleased to see that my little review number box has upgraded from a mere seven to a whopping NINE!! AAAAAAHHHH, that's grand, thanks bundles to Anonymous Luza and BloodRedSword.  
  
Hey, btw, RedSword, how's my summary doin now?  
  
* * * * * It felt like no time at all had passed, when all of a sudden, it was time for the Halloween feast. The night before, a notice had been posted in the Gryffindor Common Room, saying that the first trip into Hogsmede was to be Halloween morning also.  
  
"I can actually go this year, too. Without the aide of the invisibility cloak." Harry said in passing to his friends after reading the notice.  
  
"Good, it's about time," Ron replied. "I was getting sick of talking to thin air every time we went on a trip. People were probably thinking I was a nutter."  
  
"Oh no Ron, we've thought that for a long time now." Trinny teased.  
  
"Ha, ha, very funny. Especially coming from you." Ron retorted lamely, frowning at his own horrible comeback. Trinny just grinned broadly, declaring her superiority, and walked back to their homework station at the biggest table in the common room, which also doubled as a chessboard.  
  
Hermione was tackling an essay Professor Wood assigned them on vampire hunting habits, and was already two pieces of parchment over. " 'Moine, relax already. I hope you know the way to a man's heart is NOT by writing to it." Ron remarked, seating himself beside her at the table.  
  
Hermione smirked mockingly. "Oh shut up. I'm merely concerned for my grade. It's due next week, don't you think you should get started on it now?"  
  
"What's the point?" Ron argued. "He never reads them anyways, I could write about quidditch and he wouldn't notice. Actually, if the guy's anything like his little brother, he'd probably grade me higher for it."  
  
"Jealous because girls think he's remotely handsome, are we?" Hermione shot back, clearly hurt. "I happen to think Professor Wood's an excellent teacher."  
  
"Oh, come off of it Hermione, the man's an imbecile. He's worse than Lockhart and twice as thick. All we've been assigned this year are essays and bookwork, nothing practical at all! Personally, I think he'd be sacked if he didn't have his looks going for him and the girls fawning all over him."  
  
Hermione gasped. Ron had gone too far, in her eyes. "And I assume you're mature enough to handle those practical assignments, aren't you?"  
  
"Yup. I could beat that prat in a Wizard's duel any day." retorted Ron.  
  
"Only if Dumbledore himself were your second," countered Hermione. "Then he could take over when you were blasted to oblivion!"  
  
"I resent that!" shouted Ron, standing up and throwing his chair out behind him.  
  
"I resent you!" Hermione replied viciously, doing the same.  
  
In seconds both of them had their wands out and it was apparent that a duel was beginning. "Aren't you going to stop them?" Trinny asked Harry worriedly.  
  
"Nah, they'll be fine." Harry answered, gazing at the battle with a bemused expression.  
  
Hermione and Ron were circling each other, a wide ring of spectators forming around them. Hermione was the first to act. She both flicked her wand towards Ron and shouted "Expelliarmus" at once, so the redhead didn't have time to respond. The spell hit him in the gut and sent him flying backwards into a group of squealing first-years.  
  
Groaning, Ron rolled over and shook himself. Hermione looked a bit apprehensive, wondering if she had caused him any real harm or not. Taking advantage of a moment when she was off her guard, Ron launched a Tickling Charm at Hermione. Immediately she doubled over in hysterics, and Ron pulled himself to his feet, grinning proudly.  
  
He walked casually over to her where she was paralyzed with laughter, and stuck out his hand to help her up. Hermione lifted her wand hand, and for a second it looked as if she might be conceding to let him help her up, which was a sign of defeat. But when the girl's wand touched Ron's fingertips, a stream of small black spiders streamed from her wand in torrents, covering his body.  
  
"AAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!" Ron bellowed, spinning around in a little dance frantically trying to rid himself of the creatures who seemed to be burrowing down his pants. His severe arachnophobia wasn't helping his plight much, either.  
  
Right when Harry considered it necessary to step in no matter how much he was enjoying this, Ron began shrieking, "All right, I give, I give, just get these bloody things OFF OF ME!!!"  
  
Calmly Hermione cupped a hand to her ear. "Come again, spider-boy?"  
  
"I GIVE!! You were right, I was wrong, you are the supreme goddess of all. Please, just make them GO AWAY!!" Hermione obliged, tapping Ron with her wand and making the spiders disappear with a small POP and a puff of smoke.  
  
Ron collapsed on the floor, still running his hands all over his body as if the spiders were still there. "I win." stated Hermione cheerfully, and with a chirrup of triumph she sauntered away.  
  
"I - hate - that - girl." Ron swore through gasping breaths.  
  
Harry, finally composing his raucous laughter enough to speak, comforted his friend. "Dunno Ron, you knew what was coming when you got into this mess."  
  
Upon receiving a glare of death from Ron, Harry didn't press the subject. Another duel would most likely ensue, and Harry didn't want to have to see that little spider dance any time soon; his ribs needed time to heal from the bout of laughter he'd just gone through.  
  
Twitching, Ron picked himself up off the floor and ran off to the showers, no doubt to cleanse the feel of creepy-crawlies from his body. "Wow, they must really hate each other." Trinny stated open mouthed, eyes still staring at the battle scene that was quickly being evacuated.  
  
Harry shook his head, still smiling from the antics those two had just displayed. "Just the opposite. Things wouldn't have been nearly as interesting if they didn't care about each other so much."  
  
Trinny stared at him in disbelief. "I'll take your word for it."  
  
(^*^)  
  
Ron and Hermione remained on non-speaking terms the remainder of that evening, but in the rush and excitement of the first Hogsmede trip of the year, they completely forgot to hate each other. Harry and Trinny noticed it, but they thought it best not to point this out.  
  
After a mad scraping of every corner of his trunk for spare Knuts he might've missed, Harry finally joined his friends downstairs in the common room. There, the group of third years and older were gathered, waiting for Professor McGonagall to come and escort them out of the school and past the big wrought iron Hogwarts Entrance Gates, and on towards the all-magical settlement of Hogsmede.  
  
"It's really that great, huh?" Trinny inquired on their way off the grounds.  
  
"Oh my gosh, you have no idea," accented Ron, who loved nothing more than a chunk of Honeydukes best chocolate and a frothing mug of butterbeer. "There's Zonko's, the biggest wizard's joke shop on the planet. They've got teddy bears that turn into great big terrorizing menaces, and roses that squirt foul-smelling juice in the smeller's face, and chair shrinkers, and dungbombs, not to mention their exquisite array of trick candies. They even bought up some of Fred and George's Canary Creams; though I think Zonko's got the worse end of the deal if truth be told."  
  
Trinny smiled with anticipation. "That sounds great. I'll have to get my hands of some of that trick candy."  
  
"Forget about the trick candy, you'll have trouble enough keeping your hands off the Honeyduke's candy!" Harry laughed, mouth watering at the mere thought of their chocolate.  
  
"CANDY?!" Trinny shrieked with glee.  
  
Hermione nodded. "They've got enough chocolate to chase away even your worst bad day, if you know what I mean. Even a special Girl's Section with sweets targeted at relieving that sort of thing." she explained with a wink. Harry and Ron just stared straight ahead, feeling their ears turning red with the mention of the ailments of the female reproductive system.  
  
At long last, the laborious hike paid off as Hogsmede came into view. A few excited third years who had never been there before broke into a run, but, not wanting to seem childish or uncool, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Trinny hung back. Well, that is, until Trinny squealed and grabbed Harry's hand, taking off after the children and squealing with pleasure.  
  
She really isn't afraid of what other people think. Harry thought to himself as Trinny investigated every nook and cranny of Zonko's, amused with even the most immature gag. Both friends walked out of the shop with full sacks and lighter wallets.  
  
After that, they hit Honeydukes, where the majority of the school had crammed themselves. Trinny was like a kid in a candy store, she was so floored by the magnitude of the sweets shop.  
  
Well, she was a kid in a candy store, but the meaning of the metaphor wasn't lost on her.  
  
True to her word, Hermione's foretold 'Girl's section' held some of the frilliest candies that money could buy, but Trinny held back on those. "Not quite my taste." she groaned after replacing a ballerina cookie with disgust, which was quickly picked back up by Lavender Brown along with every other pink thing on the rack. Thank God, Harry thought. I'd hate to find out that Trinity was one of those uber girly-fairies or something.  
  
After purchasing the 'Samplers Pack,' a very LARGE bag of candy that gave you a sample of everything Honeydukes had to offer, Trinny and Harry meandered over to The Three Broomsticks, where they met up with Ron and Hermione.  
  
"Where have you two been? You have no idea how much fun you missed out on." Trinny asked, taking a seat next to them.  
  
"Eh, the novelty wears off after a while. Ron and I decided to come in for a pick-me-up." Hermione replied, exchanging an embarrassed grin with her red haired partner. Harry had an idea that boredom wasn't the only factor in their deciding to come into a dark restaurant together by themselves.  
  
"So, what'd ya get?" Ron asked, changing the subject rapidly.  
  
Either Trinny didn't notice, or she spared her friends the discomfort of teasing them, because she dove right in to every detail of her and Harry's adventure at Hogsmede. Harry, Ron, and Hermione smiled as her description went on, recalling their own first impressions of the wizarding town. Of course, Harry's first impression had occurred from underneath his Invisibility Cloak, so he hadn't experienced everything fully until now.  
  
Before they knew it, they had ordered their fourth round of butterbeer from Rosemerta, and Professor McGonagall was motioning at them to get a move on, because it was time to head back up to the castle. "Oh." murmured Trinny with disappointment, gathering up her cloak and purse (which was now quite empty) and walking out the door with her friends.  
  
"Don't look so sad, we'll be coming back in a couple of months." Harry comforted, with a halfway smiling expression about how crushed Trinny looked.  
  
"Oh, I know," Trinny laughed. "But I just hated it to end, I was having so much fun."  
  
"I know what you mean." Harry answered wistfully, as Trinny cuddled up against his cloak, seeking refuge from the cutting wind.  
  
(^*^)  
  
The Halloween feast was incredible, as always. Hagrid's pumpkins were the size of small cottages, with full bodies carved into them that winked and grinned, and occasionally "Boo" - ed the passersby.  
  
Trinny and Harry were excitedly discussing what affect a dungbomb would have on Trevor, Neville's toad, if they fed it to him. "I swear to you, it'd explode!" Harry argued.  
  
"Just because it did when you put it in a pie doesn't mean it will be the same for a living creature. I think Trevor'd smoke out of every available orifice, but combustion simply doesn't seem possibl - ooer." Trinny trailed off upon seeing the splendidly decorated Great Hall.  
  
"Breathtaking, isn't it?" inquired Hermione, sharing the same expression as Trinny.  
  
Dazed, the group took a seat at the Gryffindor House table, craning their necks to thoroughly investigate even the tiniest ornamentation. Live bats dive-bombed at Trinny's hat, but she didn't pull a Parvati and run screaming from the hall. In fact, she was trying to catch one before the little buggers grew nervous of her and went to find a pack of first-years to torment.  
  
The castle ghosts did a freaky swing-dancing number to music that closely resembled nails on a chalkboard, and Harry noticed that Nearly Headless Nick was wearing a wide-brimmed black silk top hat in celebration of his Deathday.  
  
Suddenly, Harry noticed a ghost he hadn't seen around the school before. He had a sort of greenish tint to his transparent body, and wore a blank white mask over his face. He pointed the newbie out to Ron.  
  
Ron shrugged. "You never know the types that'll turn up at Hogwarts for Halloween. Maybe he's here for Nick's deathday party."  
  
"Maybe." Harry answered, feeling unsure. There was something unnerving about that particular ghost's appearance. he didn't look as ancient, as dignified as his surrounding fellows. He looked like a student, actually, Harry noticed with a jolt. His robes were the very same that Harry himself was wearing at that moment, and there were tennis shoes on his feet. Interesting.  
  
Of course, as soon as the feast began, Harry's mind was relieved of worrying about anything save for whether to choose the blueberry or raspberry tart. By the end of the meal, all thoughts of that mysterious ghost had been replaced by the desire to sleep.  
  
"Mmm. I think that was the best meal I've ever had." remarked Trinny on their trek up to the common room.  
  
"Uhm." Harry answered, too lazy to be bothered with civilized speech.  
  
Harry didn't even remember changing into his pajamas or washing his face that night, but indeed he must have at some point, because he awoke snug and warm the next morning with sleep crusties in the corners of his eyes and a rumbling in his tummy.  
  
"I can't believe I'm hungry, after all the eating I did last night." Harry mumbled, turning over in his bunk.  
  
"I can't believe you're still sleepy, with it being almost noon!" a voice griped from below him. Harry rolled himself over and hung his head over the edge of his bunk to see Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean staring up at him.  
  
"Well hullo to you too. C'mon, we've got a game of quidditch planned for this afternoon. That is, if you ever get out of bed." Seamus griped.  
  
"A Quidditch game?!" Harry shrieked with fear, thinking he missed a match.  
  
"No, no, no, not an actual game," Dean explained, to which Harry relaxed and nuzzled back into his pillow. "The girls challenged the boys to an unofficial game this afternoon. Whoever wins gets an ancient medallion to hang up in their dormitories, and the good chairs by the fire for the rest of the year."  
  
Harry raised his eyebrows. "So I assume I'm playing?"  
  
"No." Ron answered sarcastically.  
  
"It's not like you're a talented seeker or anything, you know. Just the best we've had in fifty years, that's all." Neville put in.  
  
"And I really want those good chairs. Lately the girls have stolen them for painting toenails and such." Dean prompted.  
  
Groaning, Harry pushed himself into the sitting position. "Fine, fine, I'm getting up."  
  
"And hurry, we've got to break in our new chasers." urged Ron.  
  
"Who?" Harry inquired, realizing that all the house team chasers were girls, and were obviously playing for the opposing team.  
  
Ron didn't answer, he simply waved his arms around the room. "What?" Harry asked, not quite understanding. "Give me a break, it's early and I'm tired."  
  
Neville rolled his eyes. "Us, of course!"  
  
A siren began going off in Harry's head. Neville was a chaser? Flying on a broomstick? ONE HUNDRED FEET IN THE AIR?! This could be really, really bad.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Uh-oh! Hehehe, this next chappie's gonna be FUN for me. lol, a quidditch tournament betwixt the Gryffindor boys and girls. Who's it gonna be?? The boys, with Harry's excellent seeker-esque, or the girls with their experienced chasers?? Read on, noble reviewer, for next week shalt contain those truths!  
  
(my, I AM a drama queen, aren't I?)  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	10. Guys and Gals Gryffindor Quidditch Cup

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Ten  
  
"The Ghost of Quidditch Past"  
  
A/N: I just realized that I have one review for each chapter of my story. How sad! What can I do to help that, to nudge my little ranking up a few more notches. maybe you fine people can give me a clue on that one!!! IN A REVIEW!!! *breathe, breathe*  
  
...  
  
Okay, better now. Bitter, but better.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Walking out to the quidditch pitch with Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean, Harry had the sinking feeling that the day would end in someone's visit to the hospital wing. Neville plus a speeding broom did not equal anything remotely pleasant.  
  
Actually, Neville, Seamus, and Dean were to be the chasers, and Ron was going to be the keeper. Fred and George were to beaters, naturally, Harry was the seeker, and the others that wanted to play were to rotate in every ten minutes or so.  
  
There was a scramble for the classic chaser positions, and a few for keeper. Burly seventh years jostled mostly for the beater spot, but not one person signed up to be a replacement seeker. Either they didn't want to follow up The-Boy-Who-Lived, or Harry's various antics in catching the snitch that had landed him in the infirmary had stunted any inclination to fill the position.  
  
Looking across the field, Harry saw what looked at first to be a mob of pink bunny-rabbits. As the group came closer, they revealed themselves to be the Gryffindor girls, dressed in matching pink robes, a thing Trinny didn't look too pleased with. Harry chuckled.  
  
"You ready to get beaten down, are you?" Angelina taunted as the girls drew close.  
  
"Only if you are." George retorted, throwing his broom over his shoulder as if this was going to be the easiest thing in the world. Harry wasn't as confident, though. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia were really good chasers, and half of the boys team had no idea what they were doing. Even if Harry did catch the snitch, he had a feeling that the girl's would have scored so much with the quaffle by then that the mob of pink would win anyways.  
  
"Fraternizing with the enemy, hmm. not a very good idea, ladies, if you want me to win my bet." a voice from behind the group chastised. It was Professor McGonagall, accompanied by Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor Wood, and a throng of other Gryffindor students. Many of the pink-clad ladies visibly swooned and cooed as they realized that the attractive Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was going to be observing the match. The rest of the school probably couldn't be bothered to ruin a perfectly good November Saturday.  
  
"Nice to see you, Professor. Come to cheer us on?" Lee Jordan, who was vying to be a replacement beater for his friends, asked.  
  
"Of course not. I'm here to support my Gryffindor ladies, not you bunch of ruffians." the old lady answered with a twinkle in her eye. Wow, that made a record of two jokes the Professor had made so far in Harry's years here at Hogwarts.  
  
"You behave yourselves now," Dumbledore ordered with a smirk. "Now, will the starting lineup from each team please mount your brooms?"  
  
Professor Wood mounted a broom as seven boys and seven girls did, and Harry noticed that he had a whistle around his neck. So he was going to be their referee. ha! The game was in the bag. There was no way Angelina, Katie, or Alicia could focus on quidditch with the object of their affections flying around up there with them. Harry could just feel the cushy pleasure of the good chairs by the fire already.  
  
"All right ladies and gents, are you ready?" Mr. Hunky-Dorey questioned. "Now, shake hands and make nice." Harry, the proclaimed captain since he was the only one that was going to be on the field continuously throughout the game, stuck out his hand to Angelina, who he assumed was the girl's captain. She shook her head. He offered his hand to both Katie and Alicia, but they just shot him a look and shook their heads also.  
  
Suddenly, a hand tapped Harry on the shoulder. Turning around, Harry saw that it was Trinny. "I should've known." he muttered, shaking her hand and gripping it a second longer than was necessary.  
  
"The game between the Gryffindor Guys and Gals shall begin upon my count," Morgan Wood instructed. "Three - two - one!"  
  
And they were off. Harry soared around and around Trinny, showing off the superior skills of the Firebolt compared to her measly Comet Two-Sixty. But the girl had a knowing glint in her grin, and she took out her wand and tapped her raggedy old broom. At once it shed all it's dust and moldy twigs, looking as good as new. She wasn't as fast as Harry was, but her turns were sharp and precise, the only thing the Firebolt model lacked.  
  
"Cheater!" Harry teased as he whipped around, trying to pursue Trinity after one of her on-a-dime turns.  
  
"No Harry, seeker." she taunted back. Harry smiled and raced away from her, quitting the flirting for the time being to check up on the game.  
  
The pitch felt close to silent without Lee Jordan's 'unbiased' commentary. Harry could actually hear, for the first time, the whoops and bellows of his team members far below. As predicted, the girls were sweeping the floor with the boys. Even with Fred and George's excellent beating skills, Neville, Seamus, and Dean simply weren't as experienced as the girls.  
  
Indeed, Neville looked as if he was having a bit of trouble getting his broom to go any faster than that of a passing butterfly. Harry had a feeling though, that the boy didn't want it to. He was already doing better than anyone would've thought, successfully mounting his broom on only the fifth try.  
  
Seamus was okay, but every time he took the quaffle downfield he kept veering off to avoid hitting the girl's keeper, Ginny Weasley. He turned the color of her hair when Dean Thomas substituted him out for an even more inexperienced first year, muttering something about this "not being the time nor place for courting."  
  
Dean Thomas had so far been the only source of points for the Guys. The girls were leading a humiliating 70-10. Ron was doing the best he could, diving spectacularly to block a scoring shot by Alicia Spinnet. He missed it, but still, you had to give points for effort.  
  
Harry sighed. He had to catch the snitch soon, or else he wouldn't be able to look a girl in the eyes for months. Frantically he combed the stadium, searching for that irksome glittering gold, when suddenly he saw it - swirling figure eights around the stadium seats.  
  
In a flash of crimson Harry took off, headed straight for it. Everything was a blur, the grey-blue of the sky above him, the greenish glow of the grass below him.  
  
GRASS?? But the grass wasn't green at Hogwarts in November!  
  
Harry jerked his head downwards, knowing the price he would pay later, and saw that he wasn't looking AT something green, he was looking THROUGH it.  
  
That mysterious masked ghost, the unfamiliar one that Harry had spotted at the Halloween feast, was streaking along beneath Harry, arms outstretched, completely broomless.  
  
Noticing that Harry's speed had slowed, the ghost looked up at him with those masked, fathomless eyes. and Harry swore the ghost smiled.  
  
"AAAARRRGH!!!!!" Harry shrieked, stopping midair and turning the complete opposite direction. It scared the heck out of him, Nearly Headless Nick was bad enough, but having a ghost tailing you as you were trying to win a game of quidditch? Now that was just plain unnerving!  
  
The ghost continued on towards the snitch and his hand clamped around it - or at least, it would have, if his hand had been solid. Instead, the ghost just passed through both the snitch and the stands, disappearing behind the back of the bleachers.  
  
In all the confusion though, the snitch had taken off again. Harry barely had time to see it dart past his head before it vanished behind him. Urging the Firebolt around, Harry saw to his dismay that Trinny was zooming towards him, a huge grin on her face.  
  
Since the snitch was now heading in the opposite direction, Trinny had a head start on it, and Harry had some serious catching up to do. His broom accelerated as fast as he could get it to without breaking the Hogwarts Speed Limit rules, and pretty soon Harry could've reached out and grabbed Trinny's foot if he wanted to. Well, if that had been legal.  
  
Urging his broom still faster, Harry drew level with Trinity's waist. now her shoulders. oh, she had almost caught it, but the snitch veered to the left and in trying to turn to pursue it further Trinny collided with Harry.  
  
"Watch it!" she screamed with agitation as she streaked past. Harry grinned with determination and took off after her once more.  
  
It was a grueling chase, the snitch seemed utterly determined not to be caught. Some small part of Harry's mind noted how graceful Trinity was in the air, how her hair flew about her face and her glasses were skewed in an endearing way. However, the rest of the boy's brain was consumed by the mission of capturing the snitch.  
  
In a couple of minutes Harry and Trinny were level with each other, vying neck-and-neck for that extra one hundred and fifty points. The tiny scoreboard magically painted on the ground beneath them displayed the current score of 170-30. If he caught the snitch now, the boy's would win by ten points. Of course, the same thought darted through Trinny's mind as she grappled with her friend for the win.  
  
Soon a childish slapping fight broke out between the seekers; every time Harry reached out his hand Trinny would slap it away, and vice-versa. It was playful enough, but things were getting pretty brutal before, at last, the snitch decided to put a stop to it.  
  
The little golden bugger dove down straight into a steep dive, and it took both Harry and Trinny a second to process what it had done. All at once, both their eyes grew large and they gasped audibly, a second later they were engaged in a steep dive.  
  
Oh, this was Harry's specialty, and the Firebolt's too. Vertical pursuits were what his seeking career was made on. Harry was head and shoulders in front of Trinny, he was going to get it, HA! The boys had won!!! HARRY CAU -  
  
Harry swore he caught it. He could've sworn he felt the tiny flutter of wings beneath his fingers, the soaring feeling in his brain telling him that he was, once again, the hero of a quidditch match. Unfortunately, he was mistaken.  
  
Harry pulled up out of the dive and looked down into his hand, and to his surprise and dismay he saw that he hadn't caught it. There was nothing there.  
  
"WHAT THE FFFFF?" he shouted, cutting the curse word short. It wouldn't help him now.  
  
Looking below him at Trinny in her dive, he noticed that she looked as perplexed as he was. She brought her broom upright and looked up at him. Harry shrugged, and showed her his dismally empty hands. The girl checked below her, but the snitch wasn't there either. The thing had simply disappeared.  
  
But snitch's couldn't disappear out of thin air, it wasn't possible, even for the wizarding world. What was going on here?  
  
Scanning the field frantically, Harry and Trinny caught no sight of the snitch. The bloody walnut was fast, but it wasn't THAT fast. had it performed some sort of freaking disappearing trick or what?  
  
"Did you catch it?" Harry asked Trinny.  
  
"Not yet. You?" she replied, still managing to be humorously arrogant in the midst of this confounding puzzle.  
  
Suddenly Seamus and Dean flew over to the two baffled seekers. "What's going on? Did we win already?" Dean asked.  
  
"No, we seem to have. well, lost the snitch." Harry replied.  
  
"You're joking." said Seamus.  
  
"Hooch's gonna kill us." Dean put in.  
  
"You LOST it?"  
  
"How could you LOSE it?"  
  
"Hooch's gonna KILL us!!"  
  
"Would you just settle down? It's been, what, three minutes and already we're planning out our detention sentences?" Trinny said sharply, calm and clearheaded as always. Harry admired her for a second before going back to his role as the insulted guy. "The snitch's gotta be around here somewhere. Hell, it's probably up Neville's knickers, look."  
  
And indeed Neville Longbottom, humiliation to the name of Gryffindor Chaser, was now flying in a sort of jumpy zig-zag pattern, looking as if something unpleasant very well could be up his bum, including the snitch. "What's eating him?" Harry asked.  
  
"Who knows," Dean sighed. "A coupla minutes ago he was unable to come out of a steep dive, and Fred and George had to catch him and pull him up by the ears. As long as he's not endangering anyone else, let's let him fight his own battles."  
  
After watching the flying antics of the inept boy for a few seconds longer, attention was once more turned to the present. "Right, well, we've got a time out, and it's probably up about now, but I thought it wise to check and see how our seeker's doing. Fine, Harry?" Seamus said.  
  
"Fine." Harry replied sternly. By golly, he was gonna find that snitch or die trying. Poor Neville. that boy didn't need the whole loss of the game and the good common room chairs blamed on him. He was already Snape's scapegoat for taking points off Gryffindor.  
  
So Trinity and Harry went back to soaring fifty feet above the field, searching for this rogue snitch. Where in Sam Hell is the thing?? Harry thought to himself agitatedly. Trinny seemed to be experiencing much the same sensation.  
  
Suddenly, between brooding and malicious thoughts, both seekers saw it at the same time: the golden snitch, fluttering lazily around the entrance to the Forbidden Forest, almost beckoning them to chase it.  
  
Harry and Trinny happily obliged.  
  
At once they were off again, the swatting and grappling flaring up full strength between the two as they fought for the glory of the Boys vs. Girls Quidditch Cup. So wrapped up in winning, they were, that they hardly noticed as the snitch lured them into the dangerous Forest with a conniving cackle.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Ooo, evil snitch evil snitch evil evil evil devil snitch! Ooo, you know what I just realized? That "devil" is "evil" with a "d." WOWIE!! You learn something new every day, don'cha? Well, I learn new USELESS things every day, such as the aforementioned epiphany, but nothing of use to either me or my abysmal U.S. History grade.  
  
Eh, you don't need to know about the annexation of the Philippines to be an award winning writer and broadway star, d'ya?  
  
Sorry that chappie's so short, but I had MEGA tests and whatnot this week and I hardly had any time to write my magnificent story. The conclusion to what's up with the snitch was supposed to be included in this chapter, but then midnight on Friday came around and I had nothing. You're lucky you squeezed this much outta me, you heathens!  
  
K, so I dunno what exactly a 'heathen' is, but my Gramma calls me it all the time. OOO! And my Gramma made me a hat and a matching scarf, knitted it herself and everything! A big yay-rah to my Gramma, I love you!! And the scarf smells good!!  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	11. The Ghost of Quidditch Past

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Eleven  
  
A/N: AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  
  
Okay, now that that's out of my system, we can begin.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Harry and Trinity were speeding along the Hogwarts grounds, long having left the comfort of the quidditch pitch, chasing that rogue snitch. The golden walnut fluttered lazily into the Forbidden Forest, long out of the boundaries that restricted it, smiling as best as an inanimate object could.  
  
A few seconds after Trinny had entered the thicket of trees, something registered in her brain. This wasn't allowed, they were breaking the rules. and what in Sam Hell was the snitch doing?? Something was wrong. Suddenly Trinny yanked up her Comet Two-Sixty and performed one of those pinpoint turns, soaring right out of the Forbidden Forest with a jolt of fear. What was going on?  
  
"Harry? Harry! Come back, it's not worth it, okay? I give!" Trinny called into the dense foliage, trying to get her opponent to return to safety. But the boy was too far gone to hear her, and the forest possessed a quality that snuffed out any words of warning. Pretty soon, Harry was so deep in the forest that he couldn't've heard if the castle had exploded.  
  
After about five minutes of pursuing the snitch, weaving in and out of trees and ducking low-lying branches, Harry finally began thinking clearly. The excitement of the chase had thrown any rational thoughts out of his head, but the cool leaves swatting at his face puzzled him. There weren't any leaves on the quidditch pitch. HE WASN'T IN THE PITCH.  
  
"What the." Harry said aloud to nobody in particular, looking around him and seeing for the first time that he was in the forest. "I'm dead. McGonagall's gonna murder me." he whispered, before turning around and zooming back the other way.  
  
Wait, but had he come from that direction? Or was it from the other way? He had taken so many twists and turns following that bloody snitch that he couldn't remember where he had come from. "I'm screwed." he shouted in rage to the surrounding trees. They quivered angrily in response.  
  
Looking around for a way out, Harry saw the snitch hovering over his head. "You've gotten me into a lot of trouble before, but I think this takes the cake." he said aloud to it. Dammit, I'm talking to things that don't talk back. Again. he thought to himself stupidly.  
  
"Don't worry, it's a mistake many could make. I know I would've done the same thing." something replied to Harry.  
  
IT WAS THE SNITCH.  
  
"The hell is going on?" Harry roared, shooting backwards on his broom and whacking the back of his head against a tree trunk. The tree didn't seem to like that much, and it hit him back. Harry zoomed out of the great oak's reach, and stared in awe at the snitch.  
  
It didn't have a mouth; no other sound emitting orifice on it's surface. And yet Harry was positive it had spoken. You're an idiot, of course the snitch didn't say something to you. Must be someone lurking in the forest. the little voice in Harry's head pointed out logically.  
  
"Who's there?!" Harry called, hoping both for a response and no response at the same time.  
  
"Yoo hoo, Harry dear, I'm right here." the voice answered. And then, probably the result of an uncanny coincidence, the snitch began flying about wildly and even whacked Harry in the head twice.  
  
"Where?! Show yourself!" he commanded. Surely it couldn't be the snitch. it must be something evil controlling the it. Maybe someone even transfigured themselves into the snitch, although Harry remembered Professor McGonagall saying that people could only transform themselves into other living things, and when living things were transformed into inert objects, they could only stay that way for a short while.  
  
Harry recalled this only too vividly when Ron's coat buttons that he had transfigured from beetles had abruptly transformed themselves back into beetles. And as if that impromptu switch-a-roo wasn't enough, the so-called buttons were still attached to the redhead's coat. He had screamed for a full minute and a half, before squashing them into the common room floor. The memory usually brought reminiscent tears of laughter to Harry's eyes, but at this moment he was scared to death.  
  
After a long, deliberating pause, the snitch - no, the THING, finally answered Harry's command. "Fine then. But you have to promise not to cry out or run away. This is a matter of utmost importance, Harry. Trust me."  
  
Harry nodded curtly, secretly getting his wand ready for a stunning spell.  
  
"Alright," the thing sighed. "Here goes." And with that a high, squealing noise began coming from the snitch. The golden walnut began to twist and contort, as if something were trapped inside and trying to get out. A loud popping noise made Harry jump, like that of a balloon bursting, and a soft, greenish mist seeped through the puncture in the golden surface. A greenish mist that was taking the form of a person. or what used to be a person.  
  
Harry screamed and brought out his wand, pointing it straight at the ghost standing before him, the snitch having fallen uselessly to the ground like an empty shell. Because the thing was indeed a ghost, the very same translucent green cadaver that had haunted Harry as he tried to capture the snitch earlier that day.  
  
"Shhh!" the ghost beckoned through it's white mask, walking over to Harry and swooshing his arms around violently.  
  
But Harry continued screaming, and somehow managed to both scream and send a disarming spell soaring at the ghost at the same time. The spell just went right through him.  
  
Hello?? Anyone upstairs? Spells classified as Definition Required must have something substantial to hit. Use a different spell! Harry's voice of sarcastic reason commanded. Well duh, he had known that. Hadn't done that, but he'd known it all the same.  
  
Without another thought, Harry raised his wand once more and shouted "Sai Pronungrum!" It was a distortion hex, and did its job well. The ghost became blurry and began shrinking inch by inch, writhing in protest.  
  
"No, Harry, please! I must tell you something, you have to know. IT'S ABOUT VOLDEMORT!!" the ghost pleaded. It's last request shocked Harry into lowering his wand and discontinuing the Distortion Hex.  
  
The ghost fell to the forest floor, shaking all over. "Th-thank you."  
  
"What was that you said?" Harry demanded coldly, wand still poised for another attack if the ghost tried to pull anything funny.  
  
"Voldemort. it's about Voldemort. So important. please, just hear me out."  
  
Harry's cold expression flickered for a moment, showing worry and fear behind his eyes. "What about Voldemort? Is he up to something, are people in danger?"  
  
"People are always in danger when he is present," the ghost said sadly, shaking his head. Harry stayed silent, prodding him on. "The attack a few weeks ago - on the twenty-three muggles. That was a sign, Harry, a calling for all death eaters to return to their master. They are going to execute something big. it involves you."  
  
"Me?" Harry whispered.  
  
"You escaped the night of the Third Task, and even though Voldemort was revived, his followers were wavered by your battle with him. He needs you dead to prove himself, to display his utter power and domination. And if you're his trophy, the rest of the magical world will be shocked into submission."  
  
"So he's after me again." Harry spat, disgusted. It didn't surprise him, he'd been expecting as much ever since he got away. But now that it was confirmed.  
  
"You must be careful, Harry. You have special powers, consequences of surviving the Avada Kedavra Curse. That curse always has its side-effects." the ghost moaned mournfully.  
  
Suddenly, something in Harry's head cried out. Could it be.? "That night of the third task. hardly anybody knows about it."  
  
The ghost looked around in panic. "I - erm, learned things. When I died."  
  
"How did you die?" Harry persisted. If he was right.  
  
There was a long silence. "The Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra." he answered.  
  
Now everything was falling into place, Harry's mind working in overdrive. No wonder the ghost knew about what happened that night of the Third Task. he had been there. He had died that night, and been resurrected, also. That cold voice commanding his demise. "Kill the spare."  
  
"Cedric?" Harry whispered, lowering his wand and taking a step towards his old quidditch and TriWizard adversary.  
  
There was no response, just pleading eyes that looked up at Harry through that white mask dolefully. His shadowy form peeked back at Harry through memories, the same form that had trickled out of Voldemort's wand as Priori Incantatem had been activated. Cedric Diggory's ghost. Even then, standing in that golden orb as the deceased came out of the Dark Lord's wand, Cedric had had a greenish tinge to his body. All of the ghosts had, Bertha Jorkins, James and Lily Potter. it must be the mark of the Killing Curse.  
  
"I was so young, Harry, and I didn't want to die." Cedric sobbed, silvery tears streaming out from under the mask. Harry'd never seen a ghost cry before. He didn't know they were able to. "So I came back. I couldn't stand to let Voldemort end my existence that easily, and I was given a choice. Since I was killed with so many things left undone, they let me come back to Hogwarts. At least, until I am done and weary."  
  
"They?" Harry whispered, wondering what sort of beings Cedric had talked to from the Other Side.  
  
The ghost went on as if Harry hadn't've spoken. "It gets harder and harder to go on every day, the pull of death is so strong.. and I am so tired. It hurts so much to see everyone so alive, all my friends going on without me. At my funeral they said that they were the ones that were left behind, but they were wrong. I was the one left behind." Slowly, the ghost removed his white mask, revealing the face that haunted so many of Harry's dreams. The face that had blankly stared up at him from the cold cemetery earth, the face that had asked him to take his body back through the portkey for burial.  
  
"Cedric, I'm so sorry." Harry breathed.  
  
"Don't feel sorry for me, Harry. I had to die, and I see now that I am more useful in this state than I could ever be if I was still alive."  
  
"Don't say that!"  
  
"But it's true!" Cedric roared, throwing up his arms in protest. "Kedavra gave me special powers, I can go anywhere, inhabit anything. you saw what I did with the snitch."  
  
"You were in the snitch?"  
  
"I guess you could say that. You see, the Curse took only my soul, so I am more free than the other ghosts here. Even though they are no more solid than I, a part of their body is still with them. They have one more dimension than I do. So, I can possess anything. Even anyone, if I wanted to. And without that aide, I would'nt've found out the things I did."  
  
Harry's mind was scrambled. Giving up on trying to analyze Cedric's state versus Nearly Headless Nick's, he moved on to the subject of how he used these 'powers.' "So you were spying on Voldemort? You found some things out?"  
  
Cedric smiled, a woeful attempt at recovering from his tears. "I inhabited a Death Eater's cloak, a man named Newton Holster. It took all I had not to strangle him then and there, because the Other Side would've pulled me right out of here. I accompanied him to every Death Eater meeting, picking up scraps of information. I fed them to the various ghosts at Hogwarts, and they wrote anonymous notes to the Ministry for me."  
  
"Couldn't you just write them yourself?" Harry asked.  
  
"Sadly, no. You see, since I have no part of my solid body with me now, I cannot manipulate objects like the other, normal ghosts can. This state comes with a price."  
  
Harry nodded, pondering the thought of 'normal' ghosts. "What did you find out?"  
  
"Oh, not much, actually. Being a Death Eater isn't as interesting as you'd think, mostly just brooding and complaining. I had to ditch Holster's cloak and attach myself to Lucius Malfoy's. He's in Voldemort's inner circle, so that's when the juicy stuff began."  
  
Harry grunted with rage upon hearing Lucius Malfoy's name. That little scam was a Death Eater, and if only he could get pegged for it.  
  
Cedric continued. "Turns out the only thing encompassing Voldemort's mind these days is you, Harry. Your link is even stronger these days since your blood runs through his veins, and your mother's protection is in him also. He's been nurturing that link, until he can see almost anything you see when you're guard is down and your mind is open. Fortunately, when your guard is down you're either sleeping or sitting through a boring History of Magic class. They're trying to find a way to see other things through your eyes, such as Dumbledore, or Snape, or anything else of interest."  
  
Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "So they can't see this meeting right now?"  
  
"I don't think so," Cedric answered. "The way you were so freaked out a second ago by my exiting the snitch, I doubt you were any where near off guard."  
  
Suddenly, Cedric looked sharply to the right, like his ears were picking up some far-away sound. "Your friend is calling you, Harry. I take it she's worried sick about you, you'd better get going."  
  
Harry listened for a second, but he heard nothing. "When can I speak with you again?"  
  
"I don't know. when I come across something you should be aware of, I'll let you know. Believe me, you'll know it's me." Cedric answered with a wink, replacing his mask once again.  
  
"See you around, Cedric." Harry called, as the ghost began to fade away.  
  
"Yeah. See you, Harry. And good luck with your girlfriend. She's special Harry, I can see it. Hang on to her. You never know when you'll be ripped apart."  
  
Cedric was gone before Harry could say that Trinity wasn't his girlfriend. Indeed, he wasn't sure if he wanted to object to it.  
  
Suddenly, the snitch rose and, as if led on an invisible leash, began drifting away. Harry hopped back on his Firebolt and followed the thing that had caused him so much aggravation that day. Much aggravation, and much knowledge.  
  
"Oh Harry, Harry! I was so worried something had happened to you!" Trinny shrieked as soon as Harry's familiar face had emerged from the Forbidden Forest. She rushed up to him, running right past the floating snitch, and threw her arms around his neck.  
  
"Well, that was stupid of me." Harry chastised himself nonchalantly.  
  
Trinny swatted him upside the head. "It certainly was! How dare you do that, you had me frantic!"  
  
"Sorry about that. Guess I just got caught up in the game." Harry said, smiling sheepishly.  
  
"Ugh, boys." she said, shaking her head. And then, arm in arm, Harry and Trinny walked back to the quidditch pitch where the rest of their Gryffindors were still playing the game. In the fifteen minutes they had been gone, the two seekers weren't even missed.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Oooo, likey-likey?? I thought it might be interesting if I brought Cedric back as a ghost, and I made up all that jazz about the Avada Kedavra Curse giving special powers. Was it ingenious, or was humiliating to the name of Joanne Katherine Rowling? Tell me, tell me, I must know! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!  
  
Pretty please?  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com 


	12. The Comfort of Friends

Harry Potter and the Locket of Trinity: Chapter Twelve  
  
A/N: Hoo-dee-hoo, NO REVIEWS from that last chapter. Well humph, what's wrong with my story? I'm feeling indignant and pissed, so this won't be too long of a chapter.  
  
Oh, but I did get a movie poster of the cast of The Breakfast Club yesterday. It's HUGE, and it won't fit anywhere in my room, but it is cool nonetheless. Judd Nelson is unbefreakinglievable as the bad boy, ohmigosh, yummmmy.. mmm.. hehe, anyhoo, on with my story.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Since nobody really won the Boys versus Girls Gryffindor Quidditch Cup, they were forced to abandon the prize of the good poufs by the fire. This, of course, caused much anger betwixt the two sexes.  
  
"Geroff Alicia, I was here first!" Fred Weasley roared when the girl sat on him in an attempt to make him abandon his seat.  
  
"But I have to write this essay!" she whined, grinding her backside still further into Fred's lap.  
  
Fred's face contorted in agony. "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Stop it, it's not like sitting in that chair over there will prevent you from writing the essay!"  
  
"Yes it will." Alicia answered simply, raising up a bit and then plopping back down with an unhealthy crunch.  
  
Fred didn't make a noise, but his face went white as a sheet and his arms immediately went to guard that area in between his knees, drawn so fast it was like a reflex.  
  
"Oh. so sorry there Fred, my wand must've been in my back pocket." Alicia apologized, retrieving her wand from beneath her.  
  
"It's alright," Fred squeaked in a high voice, pursing his lips. "I think I'll go upstairs now." Gingerly he got up, walking slightly pigeon- toed and hunched over.  
  
"Sorry Fred, it was just an accident!" she called after him, nuzzling into the comfy chair. The injured redhead just wavered a shaking hand at her and continued his trek up the stairs.  
  
Trinny seemed to be keeping an unnaturally close eye on Harry, accompanying him wherever he went. He wasn't objecting any, but still, it was something Ron and Hermione took note of. "Wonder what her problem is? It's like she's worried he might explode or something." Ron commented.  
  
"Nah, she just seems concerned. And look, Harry's acting awfully upset about something. she just noticed it and is letting him know she's there for him." Hermione analyzed expertly. Ron raised an eyebrow at her in revered astonishment.  
  
"D'you think we should go ask him what's wrong?" he offered.  
  
"I don't think so. he looks like he just wants to be left alone." Hermione answered.  
  
Ron sighed crossly. "Then why does Trinny get to stay with him?"  
  
Hermione paused for a while, thinking of the best way to put this. Ron wasn't exactly the quickest to pick up on these things. "Because. Harry and Trinny enjoy each other's company."  
  
"Harry enjoys MY company." Ron interjected.  
  
"Yes but in a different way, Ron. Harry loves Trinny in a different way than he loves you."  
  
Ron paused for a moment. "Har-Harry LOVES Trinity?!"  
  
"Would you quit your bellyaching for just one second and look at the two of them!? Just look!" Hermione commanded, thrusting a finger at the couple.  
  
Ron crossed his arms and stared at the two. Harry was sitting dejectedly in a corner chair, head down and knees pulled up to his chin; his classic fear posture. Trinny was sitting next to him, stroking his hand lovingly and talking to him. As much as Ron hated to admit it, Harry DID seem to have another best friend besides him. "Fine." he muttered to Hermione, and she smiled, turning to look upon Harry as well. How much she wished she had someone to comfort her lovingly in times of need like that, to coo and whisper and.  
  
"I'm going upstairs." Ron announced roughly, standing up and leaving Hermione behind. She stared at his retreating figure until it disappeared behind the door, then she sighed in a hopeless way and buried her nose in a book. It was her only talent.  
  
(^*^)  
  
"Did something happen in the woods that you're not telling me, Harry?" Trinny crooned for the fiftieth time that day.  
  
Harry didn't answer, just shook his head. He didn't even bother to lift it from it's resting place on his knees.  
  
"Well, something's eating you. Why can't you tell me?" Trinny insisted. Her and Harry were usually so frank with one another, what was holding him back this time? Did he not trust her anymore, was it something she had done?  
  
"Nothing. Nothing's the matter, I swear." Harry lied limply.  
  
"Then I don't see why you're sulking over here away from your friends. Ron and Hermione are worried about you, Harry, and so am I."  
  
Harry thought for a moment. He was so tempted to tell Trinity the truth, that the ghost of Cedric Diggory was walking the earth filled with pain and weariness all because of him, and had lured him into the Forbidden Forest to tell him that Voldemort was hovering somewhere in the back of his mind reading his thoughts and plotting to murder him. Him and Trinny were usually so honest with each other, and it made him feel horrible to lie like this. But dumping all his problems on her lap wouldn't do any good.  
  
"No need to worry, I'm just tired, that's all." Harry replied with a pleading look into those clear blue eyes.  
  
Trinny sighed. He had given in when she had been unable to tell him about her problems. when she had lied about her problems. and so he deserved to be left alone now. Oh, but now that she was on the receiving end, Trinny knew how hard it really must've been for him to give in.  
  
"Fine then," she relented. "But you promise me, PROMISE me Harry, that you can get through this alone. Promise me that this is something you have to do on your own. Because if I find out you need my help, you're getting it, whether you like it or not."  
  
Harry smiled and squeezed her hand. "I promise."  
  
Trinny sat there for a moment, staring right back at Harry. "What?" she asked. "I'm still not moving. I'm not gonna bug you anymore, but it'll take a strong hex to pry my cold dead body away from this chair here next to you."  
  
"I should've figured as much." said Harry teasingly.  
  
"Indeed you should've. Honestly, do you know me at all?" Trinny replied, snuggling into his shoulder, content to warm him with her comfort while he stared off into space, worrying about whatever problems the boy had.  
  
(^*^)  
  
Classes were growing tedious and boring, and the pristine snow that built up around the windows in late November was just another reminder of how unfair school really was. Studying began in overdrive for the Mid- Terms, and also the O.W.L.S that would be taken at the end of the year.  
  
Hermione, of course, was studying more than anyone. Which was rather pointless, Ron pointed out, since she was the smartest one and she'd get the highest grade anyways. If anything, it was slackers like him, Harry, and Trinny that should be studying four hours per night.  
  
Trinny had it worst of all. Not only was she expected to take the O.W.L.S along with everyone else, but she was also being tested over the things she would have learned in her first, second, third, and fourth years as well. Hermione and her were suspected to having set up a permanent settlement in the library.  
  
"I can't imagine what would happen if I fail," Trinny exclaimed one day. "I'm lucky Dumbledore isn't making me start at grade one as is. If I show that I can't handle this level of witchcraft. I shudder to think of what it would be like to be twenty-one and still attending school."  
  
Ron laughed. "Trust Trinny to still be cracking jokes even when she's worried sick."  
  
"It's in my nature. I'm a funny girl." Trinny replied with a grin.  
  
"Ha, ha, now quit stalling and tell me the twelve uses of dragon blood." Hermione ordered.  
  
Trinny groaned, and threw an imploring look next to her at Harry. "Don't ask me. I was tested on this stuff my first year and I still don't know it." he answered, throwing up his palms.  
  
Groaning in exasperation, Hermione drew Trinny to her side while they reviewed the uses once more that night.  
  
"You seem to be doing better." Ron remarked to Harry, scooting over so the two girls could both fit on his side of the table.  
  
"Of course I am. I told you, it was just exhaustion, that's all." Harry explained.  
  
"Well, I'm glad. You had me seriously worried there for a second, I hadn't seen you looking that 'exhausted' since you found out Sirius Black was after you." replied Ron.  
  
Harry grinned with nostalgia. "And we both know how that turned out. I ended up with a Godfather I never knew I had."  
  
"Not to mention Wormtail scurrying off to God-knows-where." Ron added darkly. There was a slightly mournful silence before Harry smiled brightly and collected his things together.  
  
"I'm going up to the dorm, see you guys there." Harry called over his shoulder as he walked out the door. Ron just shrugged and leaned back in his chair, trying to block out the education coming from the girls next to him.  
  
Harry burst into his dorm, searching around for a piece of parchment and a quill. "Ah, here you are." he muttered to himself, finding the bright eagle feather under his bed. Settling down at his desk, he began the long- awaited letter. It was so simple, he was surprised he hadn't thought of it sooner.  
  
"Dear Sirius," he began, thinking just how to phrase it. Saying something like 'a dead friend of mine abducted me a couple weeks ago just to tell me that the Dark Lord is after me again. Just thought you should know.' wouldn't exactly get a good reaction out of his godfather. Sirius would most likely get all protective and put himself in danger, coming all the way back up to Hogwarts and getting himself seen just when the wizarding world had given him up for dead.  
  
"Just wondering how your life was coming along. I haven't heard from you in a while.  
  
Mid-terms almost here, it's a pain in the neck. Hermione's gone crazy with preparing for the O.W.L.S.  
  
How're things going with you? Any funny business with your assignment?  
  
Write me soon. Lots of love, Harry."  
  
Well, that's that. Harry thought, signing his usual messy signature. It was no use worrying Sirius. If the Dark Lord was anywhere near Hogwarts, Sirius was surely going to tell him about it in his answering letter.  
  
Why don't you just tell everyone and be done with it? the little voice asked.  
  
Oh damn, it's you again. Harry groaned mentally.  
  
Don't you take that tone with me young man, it's just a simple, logical question.  
  
Because they'd just worry about me, and there's nothing they can do about it. Hell, there's not even anything I can do, and it's my problem!  
  
They could give you advice.  
  
....  
  
They could support you, they could help you fight Voldemort, they could -  
  
Now that's enough! I will not make my loved ones suffer because of my big mouth, and that's the end of it!  
  
But you're suffering too. Don't you care about yourself?  
  
Harry sighed. No. I don't. Not anymore.   
  
* * * * *  
  
A/N: Well, here's your stinking chapter. Is there anyone out there who *WANTS* me to continue with this puppie, or shall I just leave it now? Meh, just tell me in a review. Thanks to anyone who's out there.  
  
Love from,  
  
Saranimal  
  
HaloGal5@aol.com  
  
P.S. And YES, I do want some cheese with my whine. 


End file.
